By Ryan Songalia
The newly crowned Lightweight champion Nate Campbell had a lot on his mind Friday afternoon. Upset by Juan Diaz and his camp's steroid accusations, Campbell didn't hold back his emotions when speaking to BoxingScene.com . "I think that what Juan Diaz is doing is wrong. This is what's bad about the sport nowadays. It's so easy for these guys to throw around steroid allegations when they lose. I'm sick of these guys trying to defame what someone did with hard work and dedication. If it keeps going this way, I'm going to have all of them in court."
In a press release from Team Diaz, it is insinuated that Campbell used performance-enhancing drugs, writing "it seems ironic that this was the 36-year old Campbell's best performance in years and his team didn't rush him to get his drug test."
Campbell admits "no one came in the back and drug-tested us." He claims that he waited in the back for an hour to be tested, missing the Sam Peter-Oleg Maskaev fight in the process. Campbell drew parallels to his experience in the Robbie Peden rematch. "They didn't drug test us in Australia and I lost that fight. You didn't hear me say Robbie Peden was on steroids."
"The Galaxxy Warrior" denies having used drugs in this fight or any previous fight. "I don't need drugs to beat him because he's not that good. No fight is worth putting something in my body that is going to hurt me. I never drank or took anything to enhance my strength. I've never had to cheat to beat nobody in my life."
"He was bleeding an awful lot," Campbell returned, flipping the allegations back at Diaz. "Guys who take steroids and get cut bleed a lot." Campbell also added, "If he wants to do a drug test, we can do it." Campbell held another element accountable for Diaz's inability to coagulate. "His cutman sucked. He almost bled to death."
Campbell lashed out at Diaz, calling him "a bitch" and questioning his character. "Now we're seeing the real Juan Diaz. The college boy, the crybaby. What makes him any difference than his brother, Jose Diaz? He got his jaw broken in his last fight and was exposed even worse. They're both kids, grow up. Move out of Mommy and Daddy's house.
"I'll come down to Houston and beat his fat ass for free. I have done everything I could to be nice to them. I'm not going to let him demean me as a man. Everytime I ever lost, I took my loss like a man. I made a mistake against Robbie Peden, I took it like a man. I felt I was robbed against Casamayor, but I didn't hide and say it. I said it right on the spot."
Nate Campbell also had harsh words for "The Baby Bull's" boxing ability. Deriding him as an "amateur fighter," Campbell remarked, "In all of his career he hasn't learned nothing."
Campbell expressed an interest in fighting the winner of Casamayor-Katsidis, but said of a rematch with Juan Diaz, "If he wants to fight, we can do it." He cautioned though, "he'll be paid sh*t for the fight because he made 4 times what I made for the first fight."
Any questions or comments? Send them to me at mc_rson@yahoo.com .