Who needs Floyd when you've got Nate Campbell

Who needs Floyd when you've got Nate Campbell? July 24, 2009 By Norm Frauenheim Special to CBSSports.com Nate Campbell, who helped Tampa, Fla., police chase down a couple of suspected purse snatchers last month, stole the show Thursday. Campbell knocked the mundane out of a conference call and talked Timothy Bradley into a freewheeling exchange, which is something the favored Bradley promises won't happen when they meet for the World Boxing Organization's version of the 140-pound title in a Showtime-televised bout on Aug. 1 at Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Campbell livens up the proceedings. (Getty Images) The junior welterweights were still talking -- or at least Campbell was -- when promoter Gary Shaw said goodbye to a long-distance preliminary that could get interesting at opening bell in a ring about 10 miles from where Bradley grew up in the California desert east of Los Angeles. The entertaining give-and-take erupted just when the call seemed to be ending. That's when Campbell, who had said he was sick of talking about the fight, talked a lot, stirring up placid waters with a rhetorical lure that got the businesslike Bradley to drop his usual cool. "I'm going to bust his ass," said Campbell, who went on to say a few more things, including "I'm going to take you to the abyss," and "I'm going to stop you." Who needs Floyd Mayweather Jr. when Campbell is on the line? Actually, Campbell's trash talk is a lot more likable than the variety delivered by Mayweather, who is defensive in the ring and out of it when confronted by a threat. In the irreverent tone of a Bernard Hopkins, Campbell seemed to be having some fun and it sounded as if even Bradley enjoyed at least some of it. Bradley laughed when Campbell recounted a chase on June 26 when he and advisor Terry Trekas followed a couple of alleged purse snatchers from a Tampa supermarket to an apartment, where the suspects were eventually arrested. "What if they had a pistol?" Bradley asked Campbell. No problem, Campbell said. No hesitation either. "I had one too," Campbell said. Campbell's timing -- bada boom, bada bing -- was perfect. But whether the former lightweight champ will have all the right counters on Aug. 1 might simply be a question of too much time. Campbell, 37, is more than a decade older than the unbeaten Bradley (24-0, 11 KOs), who at 25 looked like he had the durability to be a star when he got up from two knockdowns to win a decision in April over Kendall Holt. It's no surprise that Campbell dismisses the age issue, which he also has predictably turned into a source of personal motivation. "I really don't understand why media people make all of these God-awful statements about my age," said Campbell, who said he didn't begin to pursue a fight career until he was 25. "Hey you know, fighters are fighting longer and better than ever these days." On that one, at least, there was no counter from Bradley, who was at ringside in Cancun for Campbell's stunning split decision against Juan Diaz in March 2008. "I couldn't believe it," Bradley said. "When I was sitting there in Cancun, I really just couldn't believe it. I actually lost money on it. What was it, five pesos? That's why I'm taking this fight. I want to fight the best." Bradley went on to issue a warning of sorts. He told the conference-call audience and Campbell not to confuse him with Diaz, or at least the Diaz who showed up in Cancun on that fateful night. "I'm not Juan Diaz," said Bradley, who argues he is more versatile. "I'm not one dimensional." But it is Campbell who is convinced he has a superior mix of skills. It is a versatility, he suggests, acquired through experience that also has resulted in valuable frustration. "I'm an angry guy when I realize over the last few years how people did me dirty in the fight game," said Campbell, who took the IBF, WBA and WBO 135-pound title in his victory over Diaz. "... I couldn't get fights. How in the world can I hold three lightweight titles and not get fights. Now, I just want to ruin the fighters they put in front of me." Bradley sympathizes. Kind of. "At 135, I thought he was the best," said Bradley, who says he was drawn out of his fight plan by a trash-talking Holt in a dangerous mistake that he says he won't repeat against Campbell. "Nate just didn't get a chance to fight Manny Pacquiao. Yeah, Manny Pacquiao is the best. He's the poster boy in this business. But now he's catching guys as they're getting weak, dropping down in weight." Even if you subtract Pacquiao from the equation, Campbell and Bradley look around and all the way to the UK, where the World Boxing Association's newly minted light-welterweight champ Amir Khan completed a comeback from his September loss to Breidis Prescott with a decision over Adriy Kotelnik. In Kahn, they see another reason to wonder whether they aren't getting their share of respect, if not money. Khan rhymes with con, and Campbell will tell you they mean same thing, too. "Is Khan spelled with a C?" Campbell asked. "He took that boy's lunch money." Campbell figures he can take a lot more than just that. But be ready for a long lunch and a longer listen.