Why the Alphabet Boys are Jokes

The Lightweight Mess

Nate Campbell is the kind of guy we want to see win a true world championship.


He's old school. Took up boxing late. No amateur pedigree or Olympic team signing bonuses and promotional contracts. Always worked side jobs to support his family.


On tap of that, he's friendly and intelligent, and always very approachable for the fans and the media. What's not to like?


Well, his career hasn't exactly been a model of consistency, but right now he's at worst one of the top two lightweights in the world, and he's coming off a career-defining win, as he went to Cancun a few months back to won a lopsided 12-round decision over previously unbeaten multi-sanctioning body champion Juan Diaz.


The prevailing thought is that Campbell needs to meet Joel Casamayor to settle this true lightweight champion question once and for all. They met back in Jan. 2003, and Casamayor won a
somewhat controversial 10-round unanimous decision. I saw the fight, and remember thinking Casamayor 6-4 in rounds, or possible a 5-5 draw. But that's neither here nor there, Casamayor got the nod.


These days, Casamayor is considered the linear world champion at 135 pounds, mostly by the fact that he's recognized as such by The Ring magazine.


(Before I continue, it's worth noting that Casamayor is promoted by Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, which also happens to own The Ring. However, Casamayor won recognition as The Ring's champion at 135 with a win over Diego Corrales a couple years ago, before he was promoted by Golden Boy, and before Golden Boy bought The Ring.)


Does he deserve such recognition? It certainly is debatable.

Firstly, his head-to-head with Campbell has to count. Yes, it was five years ago, and yes, technically both fighters were primarily fighting in the junior lightweight (130-pound) division at the time. But it was a non-title fight, in which Casamayor weighed 133 and Campbell 131. Technically, that made it a lightweight fight.

Not counting that fight, Casamayor is 3-1-1 in fights where both fighters fought at the 135-pound limit. That's discounting his wins over Antonio Ramirez and Lamont Pierson, where he was over that weight, and also discounts his "title" winning win over Corrales.

Let me clarify something. The third Casamayor-Corrales was supposed to be for the world lightweight championship, a distinction that Corrales earned when he knocked out Jose Luis Castillo in their first fight in May 2005. Corrales' rematch with Castillo, a fourth-round knockout loss, was supposed to be a lightweight title fight, but Castillo didn't make weight and it was fought as a non-title affair. Then, a third fight between Corrales and Castillo fell out when Castillo once again didn't make 135 pounds.

Corrales signed to fight Casamayor for a third time (they split junior lightweight bouts in 2003 and '04) for Oct. 2006. This time, however, Corrales didn't make the weight, he came in at 139 pounds. But the two parties agreed to allow the fight to go through, despite the weight discrepency. Corrales was stripped of the WBC version of the title before the bout because of his weight failure, and both the WBC and The Ring magazine declared that if Casamayor won he would get recognition as lightweight champion by both organizations.

Casamayor won a 12-round decision to take the titles. He's fought only twice since then, and was stripped of the WBC version of the title when he couldn't come to terms with David Diaz, who had won the "interim" title in Aug. 2006 when he knocked out Jose Armando Santa Cruz in the 10th round of their fifth.

To make a long explanation short, Santa Cruz was named WBC "interim" champion by winning a fight in May 2006, a distinction the WBC made to two of its top-ranked contenders as Corrales was busy tying up his business with Castillo. When Corrales-Castillo III was scrapped, the WBC didn't demand that Corrales fight Santa Cruz, like it probably by its own rules should have, it allowed him to fight Casamayor. And it allowed Santa Cruz to defend the interim title against Diaz.

It's very confusing, I know. Here's how I can sum it up in a nutshell. This "interim champion" nonsense is just a shameless moneygrab by the WBC. If they felt that strongly about Santa Cruz deserving a shot at Corrales, it should have forced that fight or stripped Corrales. To allow Santa Cruz to defend what wasn't really a title was even more transparent.

As for Casamayor, I'm not quite sure how he won the WBC or Ring titles with his win over Corrales, because it wasn't even a lightweight fight. Now, that wasn't Casamayor's fault, but it's a fact. He shouldn't have been given any lightweight title for that win, how significant it may have been for his career.

At the time Casamayor was stripped by the WBC for not agreeing to terms with Diaz, he was negotiating for a rematch with Acelino Freitas, who then held the WBO lightweight title. Casamayor had lost a close 130-pound unification fight to Freitas in 2002 and many in the sport had clammored for a rematch. It too, ironically, never came to fruition.

So, if you're arguing that it was nobody's fault but Casamayor's that he was stripped of his WBC title, there could be something to that case.

However, the Ring doesn't strip fighters for not fighting, so 13 months after his win over Corrales, Casamayor was "defending" that title in New York against Santa Cruz on the undercard of the Cotto-Mosley pay-per-view. It was also designated at WBC "interim" title fight (hmmm.... interesting).

I never saw the fight but most pundits there thought that Casamayor's 12-round split decision win over Santa Cruz - all three judges had it a one-point fight - was a gross injustice. Many use this as a reason to discredit Casamayor's claim to the true world lightweight championship. I won't comment on how bad it was, because I never saw it, but questionable decision are part of the sport - remember Lewis-Holyfield I and Whitaker-Chavez - and the idea of stripping Casamayor of a title he may or may not possess is a little hollow.

Rather than give Santa Cruz a rematch the WBC was mandating, Casamayor chose to fight Michael Katsidis in March, on HBO, for the WBO "interim" title. Casamayor won that fight with an impressive 10th-round TKO, which has again led to some to think of he as the true lightweight champion.

Is he? He's 4-1-1 in the division, with a wins over Katsidis, Santa Cruz, Daniel Seda (in 2004), and Campbell, as well as the junior welterweight win over Corrales, a loss to Jose Luis Castillo and a draw with Almazabek Raiymkulov.

Let's compare that with Campbell's resume.

Beating Juan Diaz so decisively was huge, because Diaz was undefeated an a three-sanctioning body champion. He had a TV-friendly style and many were thinking of Diaz as a young star in the sport.

The rest of Campbell's run at 135, like his career in general, has been up-and-down. He was 23-0 when he first met Casamayor in 2003. After that, however, he went 2-2-1, including two title-fight losses to Robbie Peden, before leaving the junior lightweight division.

Then, he beat a journeyman named Johnny Walker in a junior welterweight fight, but back at lightweight, he lost to Francisco Lorenzo, before being brought in as an opponent for Raiymkulov on a PPV card in Oct. 2005. He shocked many with a one-sided victory in which he earned a 10th-round stoppage over the highly-touted Top Rank prospect.

After another win, Campbell fought an IBF "eliminator" against unbeaten South African Isaac Hlatswayo on ESPN2, and Campbell lost a split decision. Despite the loss, six months later he was given another IBF eliminator against Matt Zegan, and this time won by a 12-round decision. In his next fight in March 2007, he fought a third straight IBF eliminator, a 12-round decision over Ricky Quiles, also on ESPN2. It was on the basis of his wins over Zegan and Quiles as eliminators that the IBF demanded that Juan Diaz, who had defeated former IBF champion Julio Diaz in a unification fight earlier in 2007, defend against Campbell.

I'm not quite sure why wins over fighters like Zegan and Quiles, neither of whom ever earned any special recognition as a top contender, would dictate such a demand that Campbell next get a crack at Juan Diaz, who was set to fight Katsidis, but it did, and Don King, the promoter of record at the time for Campbell and Diaz, signed the fight.

Is Campbell, who holds title belts recognition by three sanctioning organization, the legitimate claimant of the world title?

After losing to Peden for the second time and moving out of 130, at lightweight, Campbell is 6-2, with wins over Diaz, Wilson Alcorro, Quiles, Zegan, Francisco Olvera and Raiymkulov and losses to Lorenzo and Hlatswayo.

It probably wouldn't be fair to not include David Diaz in this discussion, even if his claim to the WBC version of the title is extremely questionable.

This Diaz, a 1996 U.S. Olympian out of Chicago, fought most of his early career as either a junior welterweight or welterweight. His only career loss, to Kendall Holt via an eighth-round TKO was at junior welterweight in 2005. He's only been at the lightweight limit over his last seven fights.

This is where it gets absurd. Despite never fighting in the division, his first fight at lightweight was for the vacant International Boxing Association lightweight title against Juan Polo Perez, a 46-40 fighter, in Oct. 2005. Diaz won with a third-round stoppage. I'm not exactly sure what the IBA is, but let's just not ever refer to it by name again. It doesn't deserve any further recognition.

In his first "defense", Diaz fought to a draw against someone named Ramazan Palyani, and followed that up with a wins over Silverio Ortiz and Cristian Favela. Ortiz was 16-8 and Favela was 11-10-4 going into their fights with Diaz, who was then chosen as an opponent for Santa Cruz for the interim WBC title. That interim title became the "true" title when Casamayor was stripped by the WBC.

His only defense since then was a decision over a moving-up shop-worn Erik Morales on a pay-per-view last August. His next defense is against a moving-up Manny Pacquaio on June 28. He fought a non-title fight above the weight limit in March.

When does the WBC force David Diaz to fight a mandatory? Or are lucrative PPV bouts with blown-up, but popular, lower division fighters like Morales and Pacquaio just too much for the that particular alphabet joke to pass up?

I wouldn't even put David Diaz in a discussion with Casamayor or Campbell as for the legitimate claimant to the 135-pound top spot.

But ... and you know this is true, if Pacquaio blows Diaz out, how much do you want to bet that writers all over the world will be proclaiming Pacquaio the best lightweight and the true champion?

Campbell promoter Don King has won a demanded purse bid by one of the organization that recognizes Campbell for a fight with Casamayor, who will have to decide by sometime this week if he wants that fight. Casamayor may choose to "defend" his title against Juan Diaz, as both are now promoted by Golden Boy.

Let's hope that Campbell-Casamayor comes off, because it's the only chance we have of truly clarifying this mess that has been created by sanctioning body greed and narrowmindedness.

State of Philly Boxing, Part I

Pound-4-Philly

1. Bernard Hopkins (48-5, 32 KOS) - He's near the end, but he's still the only thing close to a local fighter with any kind of public clout, and even at 43, he's still damn good.
2. Steve Cunningham (21-1, 11 KOs) - A virtual TV unknown, this cruiserweight belt-holder is very good and with David Haye going up to heavyweight, he's probably the best in the world at 200 pounds.
3. Zahir Raheem (29-2, 17 KOs) - Anyone seen Zahir lately? Still a top 10 lightweight, Raheem made some bad business decisions after his monumental win over Erik Morales a few years back.
4. Demetrius Hopkins (28-0-1, 11 KOs) - Split with uncle Bernard and Golden Boy was not a smart decision, as he appeared headed for a title shot. The 27-year-old junior welterweight hasn't fought since November and has nothing scheduled.
5. Randy Griffin (24-1-3, 12 KOs) - Came out of the amateurs with some pedigree, but has taken a while to mature into a top 15-type. Drew with highly-regarded Felix Sturm in October. Rematch is in July.

****

Once or twice a year, I plan to write this blog, about the state of the game locally, because I think it's important to talk about local fighters and local boxing, and what needs to happen if the sport is going to start to regain some of the prominence it had in the 1970s and 80s.

It used to be better - a lot better.

Forget Joe Frazier, he's a different can of worms, because he was a heavyweight in the greatest heavyweight era of all time. His fame and notoriety is probably greater than any Philly fighter in history because of that; because he was champion of the world, because he fought Ali three times and Foreman twice. Does that make him the best Philly fighter of all time? I don't think so, but it's certainly debatable.

But remember when fighters like Matthew Saad Muhammad and Meldrick Taylor, and even Jeff Chandler, a bantamweight, when those guys fought on TV, and it usually was regular network TV, they were immediately identified as Philly fighters. If ComcastSports.net had been around back then, all would have been regulars on DailyNewsLive, and when they fought, people in the greater Philadelphia area would have known about it.

That doesn't happen today. Except for maybe Hopkins, most casual fight fans around these parts wouldn't know Steve Cunningham or Zahir Raheem, let alone when their next fight may be. It doesn't mean, they're not good fighters, quite the contrary, I believe my top five listed above are all very good, but they just don't get the kind of publicity, and have not been promoted correctly, to generate a lot of local interest.

The first problem starts with how their managers and promoters have chosen to build their careers from the ground up. There is a tendancy for prominent Philly fighters coming out of the amateur system to sign with a "national promoter", which tends to lead to minor TV dates and appearances on undercards of major cards in places like Las Vegas. That's all fine, especially because the upfront money is excellent, but it doesn't lead to any sort of a local following, and in the end, that makes these guys virtually anonymous in their home town. A home town that has often been thought of as a great fight town.

Take young Danny Garcia, a welterweight who just missed out on a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team and after losing in the finals of the Olympic trials, he turned professional in late 2007. He made his pro debut in Atlantic City in November, signed with a prominent manager in Shelly Finkel and has aligned himself with Golden Boy Promoters. As a result, he's fought on undercards of Manny Pacquaio-Juan Manuel Marquez II, Bernard Hopkins-Joe Calzaghe, and Oscar De La Hoya-Steve Forbes. He's also fought on Telefutura's Solo Boxeo program.

That's major exposure and boxing people are talking about this 20-year-old as a future star. But he hasn't fought once in Philadelphia as a professional, and there are no immediate plans for him to do so. As a result, only the hardcore boxing types have any idea of who he is.

Compare that with Chandler and Taylor, two decorated U.S. Olympians. Chandler is a former two-time bantamweight world champion and a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. His first 25 fights were fought in either in southeastern Pennsylvania or Atlantic City. He fought at the Blue Horizon, he fought at the Spectrum, he fought in Wilmington and Upper Darby, and he was a staple of AC boxing in the 1980s.

In a 46-fight career, which included two world titles and two memorable fights with Julio Cesar Chavez, Taylor had a built-in fanbase, not only locally but nationally, because of his exposure as a 1984 gold medal Olympian. And much of his early career coincided with many of his Olympic teammates, all of which were signed up and marketed perfectly by Main Events. None of his early fights were in Philadelphia, but he fought often in Atlantic City, including when he beat Buddy McGirt for the junior welterweight title in 1988. He ended up fighting three times later in his career in his home city.

In all fairness to the up-and-coming young fighters out of Philadelphia, the road out of the city is not an easy one and the opportunities presented like that was the case with Garcia are too good to pass up. I remember when Rock Allen, a 2004 Olympian, wanted to make his pro debut in Philly. Now, Allen already had a link with Golden Boy through his father, Nazeem Richardson, a longtime Hopkins trainer, but his team wanted to get it started in Philly. Well, they arranged to fight on a Damon Feldman Spectrum card, but after Allen and crew arrived at the arena on fight night, they learned his opponent dropped out. There was no fight, and tickets had been sold off the marketing that Allen was making his pro debut.

Eddie Chambers, a heavyweight who fought Calvin Brock and Alexander Povetkin on HBO in the last year as part of an elimination tournament to see who would be a crack at Wladimir Klitschko, is a Pittsburgh native who moved to Philly early in his career, fought 17 times at the Blue Horizon before getting a break. Ask Chambers or a Chazz Witherspoon if they would have preferred the Garcia plan if they'd had a choice?

The local promoters, for the most part, work very hard. There are shows routinely at the New Alhambra, the Blue Horizon and the National Guard Armory, and there are good fighters on those cards and some quality scraps as well. But they barely get a blip on the local media scene. What chance does a fighter coming out of that system have of actually building a following, when they're fighting just to survive?

If things are going to change, all the parties involved have to step up and make an effort to make the change.

A promoter like a Golden Boy needs to realize the important of building a Garcia in his home town, and try to farm him out to a Peltz/Joe Hand card at the New Alhambra a few times. They need to get him an interview on DailyNewsLive. They need to sell his story to the local press and TV news stations.

When given this opportunity, the local promoters need to realize they may have to buck up a little more than they're used to to get a Garcia or another prospect on one of their cards.

And the fighter needs to realize the money won't be as good, but the publicity would be invaluable toward building a future.

****

Philly fighter update:

Rock Allen (12-0, 7 KOs), junior welterweight - Hasn't fought since November and has no fights presently scheduled.

Tiger Allen (3-0, 2 KOs), cruiserweight - Rock's twin brother and also a decorated amateur, hasn't fought since July 2007. His career has never really got untracked.

Karl Dargan (1-0, 1 KO), junior welterweight - 22-year-old cousin of the Allen's, turned pro in December after amateur career. Let's get him busy and see what he has.

Chazz Witherspoon (23-0, 15 KOs), heavyweights - Cousin of Terrible Tim, Chazz has a major opportunity on June 21 when he fights prospect Chris Arreola on HBO.

Hank Lundy (10-0-1, 6 KOs), lightweight - 24-year-old is back in action on Friday in Rhode Island, after an entertaining ESPN2 draw in his last fight.

Rashiem Jefferson (14-1, 6 KOs), featherweight - 25-year-old was shocked in April, getting knocked out in the 12th round at the Armory by Jose Hernandez. He's back June 21 at the Cisco Arena in Oaks.

Mike Jones (14-0, 12 KOs), welterweight - After starting career with 12 straight first-round KOs, competition has stepped up and he has back-to-back eight-round decision wins. Still, this 25-year-old has an exciting style and a ton of upside.

****

Finally, I'd like to apologize for taking the last month off of posting. Family and work have kept me busy. I'll try to keep current from this point on.