By Jake Donovan
It took weeks to confirm that there would be a fight between unified lightweight titlist Nate Campbell and undefeated former two-division beltholder Joan Guzman.
A couple of weeks more would follow before a date and network was announced, with the bout headlining a Showtime telecast on September 13.
Precious time passed by before a general region was announced – Biloxi, Mississippi was rumored to be the location, though no venue was announced.
It's still not official (as in, a Showtime or Don King Productions press release has yet to circulate), but it now looks as if the proverbial red-headed stepchild finally has a home. The Beau Rivage Resort and Casino will play host to the lightweight title fight.
At the time it was built in 1999, the Beau Rivage, which is owned and operated by gaming giant MGM Mirage, was the country's largest casino outside of Nevada. At 32 stories and 3.2 million square feet, it remains the largest and tallest building in Mississippi. Like most of the Gulf Coast, the hotel suffered major damage at the hands of Hurricane Katrina three years ago. The time table set for most of the region to return to business was 18-22 months, but it took only 11 months for the casino to re-open its doors.
The lone boxing card to appear at the casino since Katrina was ESPN2's Friday Night Fights season opener in 2007, headlined by the Peterson brothers, Anthony and Lamont. Only four boxing cars have taken place at the casino according to boxing archive site Boxrec.com.
The first show took place in 2002, headlined by none other than Nate Campbell, who scored a 5th round knockout of Carlos Navarro while still undefeated and with Main Events.
The Showtime telecast goes head-to-head with another lightweight fight, as linear champ Joel Casamayor defends against Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas on HBO Pay-Per-View.
Many called for a Casamayor-Campbell showdown following their big wins two weeks apart in March, when Campbell scored a career best win against then-undefeated Juan Diaz for three alphabet titles and Casamayor rallied back to knockout previously unbeaten Michael Katsidis.
Campbell wanted the fight, but the payday that came with the purse split wasn't completely to Casamayor's liking, which led to the Marquez fight and Nate forced to look in Guzman's direction as the Dominican was named mandatory challenger to one of his three titles.
The Guzman fight seemed to be well within reach, only for promoter Don King, who along with One Punch Productions co-promotes Campbell, to do what he does best – intervene and put everyone else on hold. The two sides were eventually able to work out a deal to everyone's liking (though most specifically King), only for matters to lead to the aforementioned comedy of errors before finally landing a site.
Oddly enough, it was much easier to establish a loser's bracket fight – one week prior to the conflicting telecasts, Diaz and Katsidis face one another on HBO's Boxing After Dark. That bout takes place in Houston, Texas, where more and more tickets are being released by the day.
In stark contrast, the next ticket sold for Campbell-Guzman will be the first. Then again, it's tough to sell tickets when you don't know where the fight will take place.
At least the undercard is shaping up. Tim Bradley is scheduled to make the first defense of the junior welterweight strap he acquired from Junior Witter earlier this year. He will face Ender Cherry in what may or may not be the televised co-feature. Original plans called for Vivian Harris to receive a second shot at the title, after having previously failed against Witter a year prior. Cherry instead landed the assignment after Harris' name was rejected by the brass.
One-time highly touted featherweight prospect Elio Rojas appears on the non-televised portion of the show. The Brooklyn-based Dominican faces long-time divisional trialhorse Hector Velazquez in a featherweight eliminator, with the winner to face either undefeated titlist Jorge Linares or interim beltholder Oscar Larios, depending on who's healthiest by the time such a fight is ready to be made.
Maybe by then, the winners of the dueling September 13 lightweight fights can meet. But between then and now, comfort can be found in that at least both fights now have a home.
