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[h1]Pacquiao, Hatton, and Bradley make room for Nate Campbell at 140[/h1]
8 comments
February 15, 11:49 PM
by Vivek Wallace, Boxing Examiner
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Last week was a very bittersweet time span for Jacksonville, Florida native Nate 'Galaxxy Warrior' Campbell.
On Friday afternoon he failed to make weight, requiring him to forfeit his highly coveted WBA and WBO straps; Then he turned around a day later and put up the type of performance that showed everyone watching how he was able to attain those straps in the first place.
A True 'Throwback'
Some at ringside spoke of the fact that Campbell performed in a very 'Bernard Hopkins-like' way by overcoming energy depletion (from trying to make weight), to defeat a highly skilled, yet unknown commodity after the longest layoff in his pro career.
Few fighters in the game today have the sheer ability to win a gutsy fight with sheer experience and execution by simply kicking into auto-pilot and weathering the storm.
It wasn't a thing of beauty, but as we know, the end results is all that counts.
Pacquiao, Hatton, Bradley Beware...
With Campbell declaring that his body isn't able to make the 135lb limit anymore, the move to 140lbs instantly makes things a lot more attractive.
That division is now home to Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton, Tim Bradley, and a host of others with amazing potential, and has also been rumored to soon possibly consist of Zab Judah and potentially Andre Berto as well - (although no confirmations have been made on those two).
It'll be a thing of beauty to see a potential Pacquiao-Campbell showdown, but many industry insiders believe that Bob Arum of Top Rank would view Campbell as far more risk than reward, and simply find a bigger name with more money value for Pacquiao to square off against - namely Floyd Mayweather jr. if Pacquiao defeats Hatton this spring.
With the welterweight division being the sports deepest, all of a sudden, one block south things are getting awfully hot!
Stay tuned.
(Follow more of Vivek Wallace's work at 8CountNews, and Eastside Boxing or show him some love at Myspace and Facebook).