By Lyle Fitzsimmons
World championships and newlywed status didn’t change Nate Campbell.
So it’s not too surprising that assorted financial nonsense hasn’t done it either.
Last seen in a ring - alone - after being stood up a few months back by an unwilling Joan Guzman, the three-pronged king of the lightweights has spent many subsequent days trying to undo the monetary mess created by that failure to launch in Mississippi.
But his ability to fill up a reporter’s notebook hasn’t changed a bit.
“It’s frustrating, but it’s just something that had to happen,” said Campbell, who holds the IBF, WBA and WBO belts at 135 pounds. “I’m a prize fighter, and sometimes when you’re a prize fighter the ball bounces in strange directions for you. For me, this is one of those strange directions.”
Prompted when Guzman weighed in over the limit and later reneged at the last minute on a pledge to go through with a non-title bout, Campbell said the bout’s cancellation denied him nearly $500,000 of purse and “performance bonus” monies from promoter Don King.
The lack of funds worsened an already difficult debt situation and prompted Campbell to file for bankruptcy protection, a choice which when fully discharged will both ease the liens on the fighter’s checkbook and void the contract with King - making him a promotional free agent.
And it’s the latter factor that’ll most impact Campbell’s in-ring future.
“There are people calling and they’re talking to (manager) Terry (Trekas), so I know there’s interest out there in my services,” he said. “Some people definitely want to deal with me, and why wouldn’t they? I’m a three-belt champion. In this division, eventually you‘ve got to come see the man.”
Trekas, in an e-mail exchange, said “as long as this is still in the ‘legal’ arena, I can’t really comment on anything other than to say that once this process runs its course, we will make an announcement.”
Campbell earned his jewelry payload last March with an upset decision over previously unbeaten Juan Diaz, a fighter most had regarded going in as the division’s best. Still, since the triumph, the 36-year-old has seen his recognition surpassed by a pair of 130-pound interlopers.
Manny Pacquiao made his lightweight debut with a defeat of WBC champ David Diaz in June and will cash the year’s biggest check against Oscar De La Hoya, while Juan Manuel Marquez continued his campaign for a third Pacquiao bout with a defeat of Joel Casamayor in September.
Casamayor entered that fight recognized as champion by Ring Magazine.
Not surprisingly, Campbell is unimpressed.
“Those guys can’t beat me with help,” he said. “If they’d let me, I’d fight them on the same night. Seriously. I think Oscar’s going to break (Pacquiao’s) neck, and if he does, they’ll just say he was too big. And then when I beat him, they’ll say Oscar ruined him.
“As for Marquez, I think they’ll do everything in their power to keep him as far away from me as possible because I’m the epitome of a what a boxer should be. I can bang, I can box, I can brawl, I can counter, I can lead. However you need it, I can give it to you.”
Another potential test and would-be unification bout could come in a rematch with Diaz, who returned to the ring to take a split nod over Michael Katsidis for the vacant, albeit lightly regarded IBO title in September.
Diaz split with King shortly after the first Campbell bout and has since joined Marquez and Pacquiao in working with De La Hoya at Golden Boy Promotions.
“They’re all interchangeable to me,” Campbell said.
“I’d like Marquez first, but if I got Diaz again I’d make him go back to his corner at the end of every round and cuss (trainer) Willie Savannah out for putting him back in there with me.
“You saw the first time, I can hit him with any punch I want to. He’s got no punch and he’s too easy to hit. He’s defensively challenged.”
Aside from addressing the bills and inciting the masses, Campbell has spent the last few weeks returning to the gym in anticipation of a bout in January or February.
He said he sparred 30-plus rounds last week and will again this week, with designs on perfecting his arsenal - even at age 36.
“I’m working on me,” he said. “I’m a better fighter than I was the last time I was in a ring, and it’s not like I’ve just been off, I was prepared to fight against Guzman. There’s no doubt about it, I’m the baddest 36-year-old in the world. They’re waiting for age to catch me, but it’s going to catch them first.
“I’m so good, I scare myself. There are nights I can’t sleep, because I’m afraid I’ll sneak up on me.”
And, in the mean time, he and his new wife are sneaking up on the literary world.
Married on May 17, the couple recently published Rosa “Coco” Campbell’s initial foray as an author - a 226-page romantic novel entitled “Losing Yourself” - which is available for purchase on eBay or via e-mail at coco73us@yahoo.com or nate3772dog@aol.com.
The book’s initial chapter is available for browsing on Coco Campbell’s MySpace page.
“It’s the story of a woman who’s on top of her game, and then she collapses and stumbles and has to climb back,” Nate Campbell said. “She has to come back and act like a real champion.”
Lyle Fitzsimmons has been a sports journalist for 20 years and is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him via e-mail at fitzbitz@msn.com.