By Lyle Fitzsimmons
Ahhh… hero worship.
It’s a dangerous game in any form.
But it can take a particularly macabre turn in boxing.
Unlike sports where the saddest occurrence for a favorite player is a long, slow decline ultimately leading to impromptu release, trade or fade (see: Namath, Joe; Los Angeles Rams), diminishing talents in the ring too often result in sad surrender of title belts, not to mention dramatically increased peril.
See: Ali, Muhammad; Robinson, Sugar Ray; and Jones, Roy Jr.
Of course, while admittedly littered with carcasses of pugs that stayed too long, the streets are also dotted with gritty champions that grabbed a final night of glory because they were too brave and too stubborn to give in to wavering public opinion.
See: Duran, Roberto TKO 8 Moore, Davey; and Mosley, Shane TKO 9 Margarito, Antonio.
So the trick here becomes knowing just how to recognize whether an admittedly less-than-vintage fighter has already gone one too far, or if he’s got one great one left.
My reviews on such assessments are mixed at best.
While I’ll happily point out prescient picks of an aging Hopkins over Tarver and an even more aging Holyfield over Valuev – we all agree that Evander deserved the decision, right? – I’m just as eternally saddled with having chosen Jones over Calzaghe, and, even further back, Holmes over Tyson.
I was just a kid for that last one… but it’s still not one I put on the resume.
And it’s the uncertainty of it all that’s got me in a quandary this week.
Because this time, it’s one of my guys.
Florida’s own Nate Campbell.
Though I know objectivity is in the mission statement, I unapologetically admit the “Galaxxy Warrior” has been among my favorites since I went all-in with a weekly column in 2007.
I like him a lot because we’re close in age – he’s 39, I’m 42 – and because our birthdays are just 48 hours apart – his is March 7, mine is two days earlier; but I respect him far more because he’s about as straight a shooter as I’ve encountered in 23 years as a professional journalist.
He’s provocative. He’s combative. And I don’t always agree with him.
But I never doubt that he means what he says.
Which is why it’s such a task to see him at the crossroads.
I’d surely prefer to remember him as he was one glorious night three-plus years ago, using toughness and will to out-gut and outlast previously unbeaten HBO darling Juan Diaz.
I interviewed him a few weeks before that fight, and, more than anything else, came away struck with the absolutely certainty he had that he was about to spring what was a pretty large upset.
He didn’t use Mayorga bravado or Tyson menace.
He simply said matter-of-factly that Diaz had no chance.
“Guys who I fight aren't the same once I put my hands on them and it'll be the same for Diaz,” he said. “It'll go on as long as he can take it. And if he can take it for 12 rounds, it'll be the worst 12 rounds of his life. I promise you.”
He indeed emerged with the Texan’s IBF, WBA and WBO title belts by split decision.
But as luck would have it, he never got the chance at the satisfying reign.
A climbing Manny Pacquiao chose stand-in over stature in a brief lightweight dalliance three months after Campbell’s coronation, and Campbell was again left at the altar that September when Joan Guzman spurned a non-title bout in Biloxi after badly overshooting 135 on the scales.
Ironically, the reign ended when Campbell himself couldn’t make weight against Ali Funeka.
And, though he escaped with a dramatic majority nod over the South African stringbean on Valentine’s Day north of Miami, it wound up as his last win of any substance.
As of today, at least.
A fleeting retirement came and went in 2010, and, armed with an eight-round defeat of Sherzod Nazarov on the recent Lebedev-Jones undercard in Moscow, the man still claiming the tag of “America’s Hottest Granddad” is still soldiering on in search of “one last run” before permanence.
“I would fight overseas and maybe come back to the states to finish at home as a 135-pounder,” Campbell told me Sunday. “Just to fight a goodbye fight or two. I just want to fight.
“It’s what I love. It's my passion.”
And let’s not forget, as it’s been with those before him, it still pays the rent, too.
But while Campbell conceded money would “always be a concern until I die,” he claimed to be “OK” financially and insisted his encore was a quest for competitive quenching, not financial fulfillment.
“I still have one or two things I want to do and these new guys are jokes right now, so I want one last run for me and no one else,” he said. “I ain't chasing a title. I just want to travel the world and fight.”
* * * * * * * * * *
This week’s title-fight schedule:
WEDNESDAY
WBC strawweight title – Tokyo, Japan
Kazuto Ioka (champion) vs. Juan Hernandez (No. 1 contender)
Ioka (7-0, 5 KO): First title defense; First fight in Tokyo
Hernandez (18-1, 13 KO): First title fight; First fight outside Mexico
Fitzbitz says: “Hard-hitting youngster keeps title belt, winning streak.” Ioka in 9
SATURDAY
IBF bantamweight title – Las Vegas, Nev.
Joseph Agbeko (champion) vs. Abner Mares (No. 5 contender)
Agbeko (28-2, 22 KO): First title defense, second reign; Sixth straight title fight (4-1, 1 KO)
Mares (21-0-1, 13 KO): Third title fight (1-0-1, 0 KO); Held IBO title in 2010 (no defenses)
Fitzbitz says: “Emerging small man stays unbeaten in Showtime finale.” Mares by decision
Last week’s picks: None
Overall picks record: 233-76 (75.4 percent)
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/fitzbitz