Just a few days after the rug was pulled from under his anticipated matchup against Joan Guzman for his various lightweight titles at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, MS, Nate Campbell still can’t figure out if he’s merely frustrated or downright angry with the Dominican?s inability to make the 135-pound limit, thus causing this fight to be scratched.
“I’m a lot of both,” he would tell Maxboxing on Monday night. “Frustration, because I made a weight and I didn’t get to fight. Angry, because he didn’t show any professionalism.”
At Friday’s weigh-in, while Cambpell eventually tipped the scales as a lightweight, Guzman came in at 138.5 pounds. What worried Campbell was the lack of Guzman’s presence throughout the week of the fight, which was to be the headliner on Showtime’s Championship Boxing.
“I didn’t see him throughout the week, mostly that’s what gave me my reservations. I ate three meals a day, I was downstairs gambling all day long. Where’s this guy? I haven’t seen him eat. I see his people but I don’t see him so I’m like, ‘Hmmm, I?m wondering about that.’ If I’m eating three meals a day, he’s coming up from 130, and I don’t see him. What’s going on?” said Campbell.
As Guzman didn’t come within spittin’ distance of 135, Campbell thought to himself, “?Hopefully he’ll try to take off another pound-and-a-half, two pounds.'” That never took place, but Campbell insists, “I was going to take the fight no matter what he weighed. When I heard he wasn’t trying to take any weight off, that’s when I knew the fight was in trouble.”
Then just hours before Showtime was to go on the air, word circulated that this fight was kaput.
“I didn’t know the fight was off till I was walking into the arena,” says Campbell. “I was on camera walking towards my dressing room and that’s when they told me the fight was off. How can you come all this way and not try? I mean, not even try what’s necessary to get you into position?”
In boxing, you don’t fight, you don’t get paid. And down the drain went a $300,000 payday for Campbell, who was expected to close on a home this week.
“Obviously, I can’t think of a worse scenario than what happened,” said Terry Trekas, who co-promotes Campbell alongside Don King. “All the preparation and everything that went into it, from all the parties, from Nate as far as training, the promotion, the network, the Beau Rivage. Everybody put so much into it and then to have this guy do this garbage at the eleventh hour. They had to know during the week going in that they had a weight issue. It was just handled very poorly.”
As this snafu was taking place, the spinmasters from Guzman’s camp were putting out stories of their fighter suffering from dehydration and being hospitalized. Trekas isn’t buying these stories.
“Absolutely, not. Because I know to the contrary. I’ll tell you why. Number one, when he weighed 138.5, he didn’t go hit the sauna or anything afterwards to come in and re-weigh. He went upstairs and watched television. Then his people ran him over to the hospital, not because of an emergency, but to give him an I.V. to rehydrate him quicker than if they just had him drink water all night long. And the following morning, when they were still back and forth about whether they were going to fight or not, there was no medical emergency.
“His people specifically told me, ‘Well, he just ate and he’s going to relax a little bit and we’re going to go down to the gym and have him shake out a little bit and see how he feels,’ and blah, blah, blah.”
Guzman released a statement on Tuesday where he basically apologized to everyone in the boxing community. Leading into this bout months ago, when Guzman was installed as Campbell’s mandatory, there had been a steady stream of trash talk directed at the champion. It turns out that the sound and fury in this instance really didn’t mean a damn thing.
“I know that he wasn’t the one saying it because Kevin Kelley gave me a call saying, ‘Man, Guzman don’t talk like that.’ And I was like, OK,” explained Cambpell. “After all that was said and done, everyone was like, ‘That’s not something that Guzman would say.’ Then he got on the dais and said, ‘I didn’t say anything that was going on in the press. I didn’t say any of that.’ I already knew Jose Nunez (Guzman’s manager) was the one doing all the talking. But the crazy part of all this is how they’re still talking about me doing drugs and they’re the ones who came in all bulked up and couldn’t make weight.
“Isn’t that funny?”
Well, in an ironic, Alanis Morrisette way, perhaps. But now Campbell and his team are looking to go after Guzman for his indiscretions.
“We’ve already done it,” says Trekas. “We’ve met with my counsel this morning actually to initiate legal action against Guzman which will be filed this week. The Mississippi commission is giving him an indefinite administrative suspension with the eyes on that being at least one year. Which gives us time to get this legal stuff out of the way. Because we’re going to go and obtain a judgment against Guzman for Nate’s lost wages and damages the courts deem appropriate and that judgment will be on file with every commission in the States.
“And if he does ever fight in the United States again, he’ll have to deal with that. If he ever fights here again, then that judgment would look nice on a frame on the wall and that’s about it.”
As for their immediate future in the ring, it’s not clear, since all the dates for the rest of 2008 are already filled. Then there is an obligation to the IBF they must fulfill.
?We?ve got that Ali Funeka mandatory to deal with, which I don’t know if that was a TV fight to begin with that Showtime or HBO would’ve expressed any interest in,” admitted Trekas. “Who knows, maybe we can find a way to get that done in November or December if Funeka’s ready to go. Going into next year there’s plenty of options out there once we get this mandatory out the way. Marquez is out there, the Diaz rematch is out there, Barrera’s out there if he beats the Japanese guy for the WBA title. There are several options out there. I think the easiest thing to do would be to try to get that mandatory over as soon as possible.”
As for his conversations with King – who’s currently in Las Vegas accepting an award from the gaming community – Trekas says, “I spoke to him yesterday, I think he’s got a China show, a Germany show still this year in late November. So there’s a couple of possibilities where that Funeka fight can get thrown on there.”
For his part, Campbell – and this is where perhaps Guzman should take note – will act like a professional in the meantime.
“There are a lot of things out there being mentioned, but I’m staying in shape,” he insists. “When you see me, I’m not going to let myself get out of shape. My biggest concern is being in condition, staying in the gym.”
As for ever signing on the dotted line to face Guzman in the future, don’t count on it.
“I don’t ever see that happening. I don’t see any reason for that,” Campbell says. “This guy?s career may be over and the sad part is this guy?s got a family and that was selfish on his part. You have kids to feed, a wife to take care of and you don’t want to fight because you’re so worried about your zero. See, that zero thing is what messes guys up so much. They’re not willing to do what’s necessary to handle their business because they’re so afraid of that zero being axed on their record.”
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Both Campbell and Trekas would make it a point to tell this reporter that the commission doctors had cleared Guzman to fight and that it was his decision to not perform on Saturday night.
However, in speaking to Patrick Turner, the Asst. Director of the Mississippi Athletic Commission, he says that his doctor had second thoughts and deep reservations about letting Guzman go on and fight.
But regardless, the crux of the problem isn’t about the decision made by Guzman on Saturday afternoon, but the decisions he made throughout the subsequent months after his last bout with Humberto Soto back in November. You don’t suddenly wake up 180-plus pounds.
You’re telling me nobody in his camp thought about perhaps pulling out a scale and weighing Guzman, oh, let?s say around April, May, or June?
And during this down time, Guzman didn’t think that it was maybe a good idea as a professional prizefighter to perhaps put down the fork and maybe hit the gym once in awhile?
NECESSARY
It’s interesting to note that if the WBC were involved in Campbell-Guzman, there would have been mandatory pre-fight weigh-ins leading into September 13th. Many times as you get their releases announcing that fighters have made their benchmarks you think nothing of it. I mean, they’re fighters, they’re supposed to make weight, right? But as we’ve seen in recent years, that is no longer a given.
But you see why this is actually a very good idea that has been implemented in several jurisdictions and the WBC.
I think even the Mississippi commission would agree with that.
MID-WEEK FLURRIES
Lookalikes – DeSean Jackson and Leon Lett….By the way, some folks skewered me for saying Jackson was a superior player to the over-hyped Ted Ginn, then at Ohio State, a couple of years ago. I accept your apologies….It’s funny, but you never really hear of boxers who have side jobs and who moonlight to make ends meet coming in heavy and not making weight, do you?….Not a fan of that little Pasta Guy from Domino?s Pizza. Bring back ‘the Noid’ I say….Not surprised at all that Raiders defensive lineman Tommy Kelly was busted for a DUI. Being on that team would lead me to hit the bottle too….A good source tells me that the Marquez-Casamayor card sold no more than 3,800 tickets this past weekend….I get the sense that Vernon Forrest will be an interested observer of the September 27th bout between Shane Mosley and Ricardo Mayorga…..I hear that the bout between Jermain Taylor and Jeff Lacy on November 15th will end up in Nashville, TN on the campus of Vanderbilt University at their hoops arena. No word if Will Perdue or Barry Goheen will be on the undercard….I have to admit, Bananarama’s ‘Cruel Summer’ is one of my favorite 80’s songs. When that song comes on, nobody better touch that radio dial…
