Andres Campos is slowly emerging into a legit contender. He is hoping to land an opportunity to fight for a world title. 

Campos is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Gilberto Pedroza of Panama Sunday night at the Gimnasio Municipal in Lo Barnechea, Chile, not far from his hometown of Santiago. 

Scores were 97-92, 97-92, and 96-93 for Campos, who improved to 14-0, 3 knockouts. 

The 25-year-old landed the more-effective punches throughout most of the fight. The shorter Pedroza (21-10-2, 9 KOs) was deducted a point in the eighth round for butting Campos in the head. 

In his previous fight on June 11, Campos defeated Jesus Silvestre of Mexico by unanimous decision. 

Manager Tony Tolj has high expectations of Campos, who is currently ranked No. 8 by both the IBF and the WBO. Tolj believes Campos staying active has benefited him a great deal and he is hopeful Campos could fight for a world title sometime in 2023.

“Andres is a workhorse,” Tolj told Boxingscene. “He’s always working hard. This fight with Pedroza was already his third for the year. Andres was made to earn this victory and I believe (this fight was) his hardest to date. It’s all been a progressive step-by-step, level-by-level journey to be able to (get to) the next level of competition.

“The plan is to get another (WBO Latino flyweight) title defense before the end of the year. Andres, myself and (promoter) Nicolas (Martinez) will all head to the WBO Convention in Puerto Rico in October and be looking to finish off 2022 in style with another step up in competition. If other opportunities don’t arise, we will create our own destiny.”

Campos has trained along and sparred with Andrew and Jason Moloney, both of whom are also managed by Tolj. 

Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene since September 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing