Campbell-Guzman: No Business Fight, Just Strictly Business
By Jake Donovan
Every so often, fighters just say, “To hell with the business side of the sport” and just get down to business. Sure, damn near everyone belts out the old (and by today’s standards, outdated) line “Anyone, any place, any time.” But very few mean it.
When Nate Campbell and Joan Guzman say it, they mean it.
Proof? Their head-on collision this weekend in Biloxi, Mississippi (SHOWTIME, Saturday, 9PM ET/PT) should cover that.
It was a fight neither had to pursue, but simply settled on when nobody else in or around the division was willing to step up. The move was hardly a foreign concept to either fighter, who continue to accept whatever assignments are put in front of them, regardless of the financial reward or commercial accolades to be gained – or lack thereof.
Campbell (32-5-1, 25KO) had his eye on a Joel Casamayor rematch the moment he snatched the “0” from Juan Diaz’ resume this past March. Even beyond attempting to settle a five-year old score, the fight made sense from the standpoint of determining lightweight supremacy.
Prior to suffering his first loss, Diaz was being sold as the best 135 lb fighter on the planet despite Casamayor’s claim as the division’s linear champion. Diaz earned his accolades in 2007 after defeating a pair of titlists in Acelino Freitas and Julio Diaz.
All of that disappeared when he ran into Campbell in Cancun earlier this year. A somewhat close fight in the first half turned into a rout for the 36-year old Campbell, who delivered the best performance of a career best known for its shortcomings prior to the fight.
The win helped erased the bad taste left behind in past letdowns, particularly his pair of knockout losses against Robbie Peden and shocking points loss to Francisco Lorenzo in 2005.
But one thing about Campbell that makes him old school and not just old is his ability to bounce back from adversity. His record is a dismal 9-5-1 dating back to the Casamayor fight more than five years ago, yet still resides near the top of the lightweight division.
A late bloomer with limited amateur experience (36 fights by his own estimation), Campbell first gained buzz in 2002 after knocking out Daniel Alicea. It wasn’t so much the opponent as the opportunity – the three-round thrashing came on the pay-per-view televised under card of Oscar de la Hoya’s win over Fernando Vargas.
HBO was so impressed that they brought him back four months later. Boasting a record of 23-0 at the time, Campbell was matched up with Casamayor, an Olympic gold medalist and former junior lightweight champ who appeared to be just past his prime following a not so brilliant 2002 campaign.
It was thought to be the ultimate crossroads match, and turned out to be a dandy. In the end, Campbell was able to hurt the Cuban like nobody else had previously managed, but fell just short on the cards in suffering his first loss.
He believed to have recovered mentally from the setback, but his follow up appearance four months later suggested otherwise. Campbell looked flat and often confused at times in struggling to a draw against Edelmiro “Tiger” Martinez on NBC, having now gone two straight without a win after knowing no other way through his first three years and 23 fights as a pro.
Campbell eventually avenged the draw, brutalizing the Bronx native en route to a 4th round disqualification win in 2004. But it was the two knockout losses to Peden sandwiching this bout for which Campbell would be best remembered
The first fight in particular was the one most often mentioned prior to March ’08 when anyone would assess Campbell’s chances of defeating any major lightweight. The infamous scene of getting cracked while sticking his chin in the air and taunting Peden is the proof to which the haters cling when dismissing the Floridian as a fighter capable of losing at any time.
Truthfully, it’s not much of a stretch on paper to sell Campbell as a one-trick pony. But doing so would be limiting his career to what could basically be chalked up to a three-year funk, when he went 5-4-1.
An April 2006 loss to Isaac Hlatswayo perhaps accentuated the frustrations that came with his career. Campbell was originally scheduled to face Julio Diaz, who instead pulled out after receiving word that he would be eligible to contend for an interim title.
The consolation prize for Campbell was a three-step road to a title shot, beginning with the first of what would’ve been two alphabet eliminators. He never made it that far, falling short against Hlatswayo, a last minute opponent and proved to be a stylistic nightmare.
Whether or not he agreed with the outcome was irrelevant; Campbell instead took the fight as a wake-up call, and it’s been strictly business ever since, barely losing a round in his next three fights prior to the Diaz assignment earlier this year.
It was the months leading up to that fight where Campbell showed his fighting heart. The plan for Team Diaz was to seek either total alphabet unification, or a big money fight with Manny Pacquiao. It was even suggested by manager Willie Savannah in the post-fight press conference following Juan’s win over Julio Diaz that Campbell could perhaps “face Michael Katsidis on the undercard” of Diaz’ next fight, rather than enforce the mandatory.
A step-aside fee was also suggested, but Campbell wasn’t budging. He wasn’t interested in cleaning up anyone else’s mess (translation: he earned his shot and didn’t want to worry about taking care of Katsidis, Diaz’ other mandatory at the time), nor was he interested in putting money in his pocket more so than a notable win on his resume.
Campbell got his wish and eventually the win that would resurrect his career and make him an instant player in the lightweight sweepstakes.
However, he’d run into an opponent even greater than any other challenge at 135 lb – the promoter quickly gobbling up the division’s key fighters. A war of words through the media led to Campbell being blackballed by Golden Boy Promotions, who decided it would be within their lightweights’ best interests to remain within the cocoon and only face one another.
The move led to competing lightweight battles this weekend, though it’s hardly a competition as far as getting your money’s worth. HBO indirectly admits as much, as they only serve as distributor to Saturday’s Joel Casamayor-Juan Manuel Marquez pay-per-view card.
Meanwhile, SHOWTIME had no problem committing to the “other” lightweight fight this weekend, perhaps the only one among Top 10 fighters in the immediate future that doesn’t include Golden Boy Promotions.
It would have a year ago; that was before Joan Guzman (28-0, 17KO) and his handlers decided it was time to move on from a career that remained stuck in the mud.
There are so many ways in which Campbell and Guzman are so different, yet so similar. As mentioned earlier, Campbell basically learned as he earned as far as career experience goes. Guzman’s amateur background is far more polished, having fought in headgear over 300 times and competing for his native Dominican Republic in the 1996 Olympics.
Unlike Campbell, Guzman’s won his biggest bouts, in fact has won all of them. The problem is that the names he’s defeated are hardly the type that help the multi-talented Dominican gain instant notoriety, aside from being a fighter to avoid.
Such comes with the territory when you’re always willing to face the best available fighters, which is where he and Campbell enjoy a common bond.
Guzman long ago proved his mettle in that regard. The journey on the road to becoming among boxing’s most feared began in 2002, when he traveled to Wales for a crack at his first major alphabet title, easily dismantling Fabio Oliva.
It was a win that would serve as the best and worst of times for Guzman, who now had a bargaining chip and a buzz about him, but also came with baggage in the form of managerial and promotional issues.
The latter never seems to go away, as more promoters claimed to have paper on Guzman than any other fighter in recent memory. But it was his alliance with controversial manager Rafael Guerrero that offered more harm than help to Guzman’s career, particularly the shit storm he created with the WBO and its president, Francisco ‘Paco” Valcarcel.
Guzman did his best to distance himself from Guerrero and the slanderous accusations made against the WBO. It was to where not even a dominant knockout win over Agapito Sanchez served as the frontline story in his career, at least until receiving help from a longtime friend.
Jose Nunez entered the picture, finding a way to balance friendship and business in his greatest efforts to make Guzman a relevant fighter. The journey began with a win over then unbeaten Fernando Beltran on a bout that was aired by TV Azteca, the first of what will be seven straight fights to air on either television or a live webcast following this weekend’s bout.
When it was clear that none of the other top players at 122 were interested in meeting Guzman, the decision was made to seek opportunity four pounds north. Guzman’s first featherweight test came against another unbeaten fighter in unknown Thai challenger Terdsak Jandaeng. Guzman scored a knockdown en route to a lopsided decision in a fight that made him the mandatory challenger to a crown then held by Scott Harrison.
The fight never panned out, with the troubled Scot postponing the fight several times before Guzman decided enough was enough and moved on with his career. Accusations of Guzman avoiding the challenge were ridiculous, and further dismissed in retrospect; Guzman’s very next match was against hardened former titlist Javier Juaregui, while Harrison’s only fights since then came against the law.
The Juaregui fight was Guzman’s first under the Golden Boy Promotions banner, though still co-promoted by Sycuan Ringside Promotions. While with GBP, Guzman developed a reputation as one who takes on all comers, but also as a high-risk, low-reward fighter. Worse, each fight seemed to lend more credence to the risk, and less to the reward side.
While he can box like a dream, his style is an acquired taste and his in-ring arrogance has turned off more than a few, especially in the wake of his losing his once ferocious punching power at the lower weights. Some have suggested that in weight-hopping, the power edge has regressed, while others believe that too many lengthy periods of inactivity has hindered his ability to put together punches from round one through twelve.
Whatever the case, it’s been more than four years since his last knockout, in fact only scoring two knockdowns in a span of seven fights that have gone at least ten rounds each.
Make no mistake, the sport is called boxing – knockouts aren’t mandatory, though an occasional early exit never hurt in energizing a crowd and building anticipation for future fights.
Of course, knockouts don’t come as frequently when you’re the one guy accepting the fights nobody else wants out of fear of losing, or even winning ugly. So when the lineup is Javier Juaregui, Jorge Barrios, Antonio Davis and Humberto Soto, you might as well grab a Snickers and prepare to be there a while.
Guzman had the chance for a major career boost last year when he was scheduled to face Michael Katsidis, only for the bout to fall through due to an untimely injury. The cancellation led to Guzman sitting on the bench for almost a year before facing Soto last November.
The bout landed on HBO’s Boxing After Dark, Guzman’s first appearance on the series. If rival promoter Bob Arum, who has Soto, had his way, it would be his last. Guzman won a fight that the promoter expressed disgust with the final scorecards (though admitting his guy lost) and the manner in which the bout was fought. The first half was far more entertaining than the back six, thus leading the promoter to suggest that Guzman would never land assignment against his cash cow, Manny Pacquiao.
As it turned out, no lightweight would - except of course, for David Diaz, who is also under the Top Rank banner. Arum allowed that fight as it gave him the quickest route to a lightweight belt for the Filipino, before removing him from the 135 lb. lineup for at least this year and part of next as he beefs up to take on Oscar de la Hoya later this December.
That left the rest of the division to search for alternative earning opportunities. Guzman’s came almost by accident. He was originally scheduled to travel to Scotland earlier this year for a mandatory junior lightweight defense against Alex Arthur. Much like the aforementioned comedy of errors in attempting to secure a bout with Scott Harrison, Guzman was left to contend with more shenanigans from a fighter in that region – and of course no small coincidence that both were promoted by Frank Warren.
As was the case in the Harrison debacle, one too many postponements led Guzman to say to hell with the fight, once again moving up in weight.
Manager Jose Nunez was able to work out a deal where in exchange for Guzman vacating his 130 lb belt, he would gain a mandatory ranking one division up, which led to the bout with Nate Campbell.
It can be argued that their timing was off, that they should’ve pulled the move while a more lucrative bout would’ve come with Juan Diaz. But there’s no guarantee Diaz would’ve went through with the fight and even less so now that he’s with Golden Boy.
Campbell wasn’t exactly thrilled with the prospect of a Guzman fight, with his team questioning how he’d automatically leapfrog Amir Khan and Anthony Peterson in the organization’s rankings.
He could’ve just as easily dumped the title and held out for a more lucrative option – for example, former linear featherweight champ Marco Antonio Barrera recently signed with Don King, who also promotes Campbell. Preliminary plans already allude to a potential Campbell-Barrera showdown in 2009.
But before Campbell gets there, he has to get past Guzman. Even in the wake of bigger paydays – and perhaps easier pickings – lying ahead, Campbell will still do the right thing and proceed with the Guzman fight.
Why? Because he gave his word that he’d take on all comers while daring the rest of his peers to do the same.
As it turned out, Guzman was the only one to take him up on that offer, which is how we got to this weekend’s fight. While its PPV competition was strictly a business move, this fight is strictly no-nonsense business. Boxing the way it ought to be – and thanks to Showtime, Nate Campbell and Joan Guzman, boxing the way it is, at least for one weekend.
