By Brent Matteo Alderson
John David Jackson is one of the sport’s top trainers and is regularly involved with match-ups that shape the sport’s general landscape. Most recently he trained Carl Davis Drummond for his fight last week against Ruslan Chagaev as well as Nate Campbell for his fight this past weekend on HBO against Ali Funeka. In this interview John David graciously took the time to provide the readers of BoxingScene.com with a more detailed account of Campbell’s problems at the scales and Drummond’s fight with Chagaev. He also responds to Joan Guzman’s criticisms and calls out the winner of Pacquiao-Hatton.
BoxingScene.com: Talk to me about the Nate Campbell fight.
John David Jackson: He trained hard. We pushed him hard at the gym, but the weight hindered him, making weight for the fight. I knew Funeka was tough. He took a lot of punishment and Nate took off some of the middle rounds and wasn’t at 135 the way he should have been and I know I’m going to get a lot of slack for that, but I trained him hard. The result showed that my work did benefit him at the end because he fought a hard twelve rounds and he finished the twelve rounds strong. Maybe his body has matured and maybe it’s time to move up to 140. I think he can make 135 with a nutritional expert to help him out, but with the age moving up to 140 is probably the best thing for him. And so that’s where he’s going to go. A win is a win, I’m happy with it. He performed gallantly because that’s Nate Campbell. It was a good fight for him, it was an action packed fight.
BoxingScene.com: Were you worried about the decision before the scores were announced?
John David Jackson: I wasn’t worried. Myself, I had it 6-6, but I knew the knockdowns would make the difference. The first round I felt Nate won, and then he gave away four or five rounds in the middle. I thought he won the last three and with the knockdowns I wasn’t worried about the decision at all. Funeka put on a good performance, but he was pitty-patting and Nate was catching them and there was a time when he wasn’t answering back and in the judges eyes it may have looked as though Funeka was dominating, but they weren’t effective shots, they were being caught by Nate’s gloves. Nate just didn’t counter back to make the fight look even in those rounds. They weren’t hard blows, just distracting.
BoxingScene.com: You were with Nate for the Joan Guzman debacle. What happened here? Were you guys monitoring his weight?
John David Jackson: We monitored it. The problem was Nate bought a cheap scale. Guess what? We worked hard that morning, the day of the weigh-in, and our scale said 134.2. Then we get to the weigh-in and that scale said 138. Come on, you need to have professional-type scale, you should have bought a better scale. The scale he bought, he thought was good, but it wasn’t.
BoxingScene.com: Did he buy it at Target or something?
John David Jackson: Probably Wall-Mart. I’m not bagging on Wall-Mart, but he probably got it at Wall-Mart. It’s one of those nice digital scales, but it’s not top of the line. He should have got a top of the line scale. We worked hard that morning and our scaled said 134.2. So I figured we got it. Then we stepped on the official scale and it said 138 so we went back to the drawing board and he went to the sauna for two hours and he could only lose a ½ a pound. We tried. Now Guzman is talking a lot of trash about Nate now, but he needs to realize one thing, no matter how much weight Nate tried to lose and couldn’t lose, he fought. He didn’t punk out, he lost what he could and still fought like a soldier and won the fight. He didn’t cry and say I’m not going to fight. He still fought and he still won.
Some people thought he lost, but the judges didn’t think so and that’s what counts. Guzman and some other guys are talking, but guess what he did one thing Guzman didn’t do and that’s fight. He didn’t cry about it and say I’m not fighting. People can say what they want, Nate showed that he’s a warrior and whatever the circumstances were, he still prevailed. Critics can say what they want, but how many fighters lose that kind of weight and still try to lose more weight and still fight and still win.
BoxingScene.com: Not to be negative, but I think with Nate not making the weight and losing his titles at the scales that he probably lost the opportunity to fight the winner of the Barrera-Khan in a big multi-million dollar promotion?
John David Jackson: The one thing about Nate is that he’s an action packed fighter. He’s going to give you all that he has. HBO loves his work. All the lightweights are controlled by Golden Boy and they don’t want to fight Nate. If they did, they should step up to the plate and fight him at junior-welterweight. If you want to put the best fights on, let the winner of Pacquiao-Hatton fight Nate. Don’t put Mosley in with the winner because he’ll beat both those guys, he’s too strong and too big. Let Nate Campbell fight the winner of Pacquiao-Hatton. Let the people see a fight they deserve to see. He’s the same weight as those guys, the same height, let the people see a real action packed fight.
Golden Boy is doing what Don King did for a while, they are keeping their fighters in house, but at least when a good fight came along, King and Arum got together and put it on. Bob Arum had Pacquiao and let him fight and Golden Boy should let their fighters fight. Let one of their lightweights fight Nate Campbell and see what happens. If he’s not worthy their guy should beat him. Let Nate get a taste of the real money.
BoxingScene.com: Let’s talk about Carl Davis Drummond’s fight with Chagaev. Tell me about it.
John David Jackson: For being in his first big major fight and having fought twenty-six guys that weren’t on that level and not having fought in that big fight atmosphere, Carl did well. He was a little tentative the first two rounds, but once he got his motor revved up and started letting his hands go he began to make the fight closer.
Unfortunately, the clash of heads occurred I believe in the very first round and I kept telling him in between rounds, listen I think they are going to try to snatch this from us so you have to step it up because they are definitely going to try to stop this fight and go to the scorecards. In defeat Carl’s stock went up and he moved up couple of notches. People thought Chagaev was going to blow him out so the loss was a good thing. He needs to beat some good American names that are on the way down that are still dangerous and showcase his talent to the general American public. There have been a couple of names that have been thrown across the table and he’ll fight by May against a name opponent and he’ll be right back in the mix. He’s not that far off.
He was tentative the first couple rounds because of butterflies, but once he got started, he landed some uppercuts and some nice over-hand rights, but we were going against the clock, and once six rounds were done and they were ahead, we knew they were going to go to the score-cards, but that’s part of the problem of fighting oversees some times, you’re in hostile territory and everything is stacked against you as a fighter.
Notes:
Favorite Quote: When he was a young man, Jeff Harding’s father informed the rugged Australian that he wasn’t really his father and was indeed a product of his mother’s affair with an unknown Dutchman. And as a result, during his time as a two WBC Light-heavyweight champion in the late eighties and early nineties, he used to always state - “I’m a bastard and a mean bastard, too.”
I thought Sergio Martinez won at least nine rounds against Kermit Cintron. I’ve said it before, but Cintron was an accomplished NCAA division-one wrestler and with his punching power and wrestling background, he could pull a Brock Lesnar and instantly become one of the better fighters in the UFC. Come on Dana White, make this man an offer and let’s see how a world class boxer with a wrestling background does in the Octagon.
This past Friday night I went and observed Chris Arreola sparring with Hildo Silva 4-0-1 (1KOs). They went a few rounds, but Chris wasn’t going all out, he was working on his defense and his jab. Al Hayman’s point man Wes Crockett was there and everybody was real hush-hush about an opponent for the proposed bout on the Wright-Williams undercard. The video of the sparring session will be available here at BoxingScene.com later in the week.
Junior-welterweight prospect, Mauricio Herrera was also there training at the gym and early in the day had been over to Indio to spar with Timothy Bradley. Herrera 8-0 (5KOs) will fight on the Thompson Boxing card in Ontario California on February 27. For tickets call (714) 935-0900.
Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?” Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com
