“Fighting Words” – Weight and Campbell’s Alphabet Soup

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

by David P. Greisman - Take a handful of 135-pound fighters and place them in a bowl. Add a pinch of pugilists who formerly weighed in at 130 pounds, all of whom are now looking to mix it up five pounds north. Stir.

The lightweight division has the right recipe for a meaty, juicy stew, for delicious, fulfilling fights. Take in too much, however, and the weight will get to you. Throw in the wrong ingredients and alphabet soup will ruin the meal.

One cook who has left the kitchen is Nate Campbell, who, quite literally, has grown too big for the division.

Campbell was to defend his three lightweight titles – one each belonging to the International Boxing Federation, World Boxing Association and World Boxing Organization. But he lost his belts at the scales, weighing in at 137.5 pounds.

That was one pound less than what Joan Guzman weighed this past September, one night before he was supposed to have stepped into the ring against Campbell. Guzman never stepped back on the scales. Instead, he was taken to the hospital and treated for dehydration. Campbell and Guzman agreed to fight in an over-the-limit bout, but Guzman pulled out hours before, leaving Campbell without an opponent and without a payday.

“I’m disappointed. There’s a lot of disappointment,” a subdued Campbell said that night. “I really trained hard for this fight. I’m ready to fight right now. I accepted the fight with him over the weight. It didn’t matter to me what he weighed. I just wanted to fight. [details]

[Dave Rado]

Bad news already - Warren and King are lobbying the WBO to make the Barrera-Khan fight a title fight:

Khan’s bout with Marco Antonio Barrera on March 14 at the MEN Arena, Manchester, could now be elevated to world-title status.

Barrera, who hopes to become the first Mexican boxer to win world titles at four weights, is ranked No 1 by the WBO, with Khan at No 9. Yesterday, Frank Warren and Don King, the promoters of Khan and Barrera respectively, were lobbying the sanctioning organisation to give their approval.

The WBO is likely to approve a bout that is already scheduled, ensuring that the title does not become dormant. However, it could choose to give its sanction to a contest between Juan Manuel Márquez and Juan DÍaz, the WBO’s No 2 and No 3 respectively, which is to take place for the IBO title on February 28, although Diaz is also the leading available contender for the now-vacant IBF title.

That would devalue the WBO belt even more than it has been devalued already - a faded former legend who has never even fought at lightweight, vs. a prospect who was KO'd in 56 seconds by another prospect in his last but one fight and who has also never faced a lightweight contender (and who clearly needs a few more fights before he'll be ready to do so - he might be ready for Barrera, but he sure as hell isn't ready for anyone in The Ring's top 5 at the weight). Warren's a complete prick. King too, but especially Warren.

Fingers crossed that they sanction Marquez-Diaz instead, and make Funeka the mandatory. But I wouldn't bet on it ...

[JakeNDaBox]

Great stuff as usual, David. The bit about Mayo was great, and even my wife laughed heartily about the Mayo/Michael Phelps connection.

[Hitman932]

Great stuff as usual, David. The bit about Mayo was great, and even my wife laughed heartily about the Mayo/Michael Phelps connection.

I work at the Ann Arbor News and the Grand Rapids paper is one of our sister publications. Mayo is excellent as what he does and it will be a real shame if he loses his job. Likely he will simply because the newspapers are struggling so bad financially they will jump on the chance to eliminate his job and not replace it.

All seriousness aside, I have a few friends in GR who knew him and got weed from him and they refer to it as Mayo-juana out there.