By KEITH IDEC, NorthJersey.com
They’re kidding, right?
Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s advisers aren’t lining up another non-welterweight for him to dismantle now that negotiations for what could’ve been the biggest fight in boxing history have inexplicably collapsed. They aren’t that audacious, are they?
Several Internet reports have indicated that Mayweather’s tight-lipped handlers are targeting Nate Campbell as his next opponent, probably for sometime in April. Yes, former lightweight champion Nate Campbell (33-5-1, 25 KOs, one NC).
The same Nate Campbell who nearly lost his last scheduled 135-pound fight to South Africa’s Ali Funeka 11 months ago. The same Jacksonville, Fla., fighter who in his first fight at 140 pounds Aug. 1 appeared well on his way to losing to Timothy Bradley, before Campbell, 37, claimed a cut over his left eye prevented him from continuing in what later was ruled a no-contest.
If Mayweather wanted to battle Bradley (25-0, 11 KOs, one NC), he’d still be a heavy favorite, but at least he’d be challenged by an improving, undefeated fighter. Facing unbeaten boxers beneath his weight class apparently is too much to ask of Mayweather now, too.
Then again, many fight fans have helped create this Mayweather monster. His last lopsided welterweight fight against a talented yet overmatched lightweight, Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez, drew about 1.05 million pay-per-view buys.
With a fight against Manny Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) at the very least on hold until the fall, that’ll only encourage Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) to continue avoiding legitimate welterweight threats.
You can forget fights against the Shane Mosley-Andre Berto winner, Paul Williams, or even Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, who’ve both been badly beaten over the past year. Mayweather knows he doesn’t need to take real risks to make eight figures, so he’ll keep carefully choosing his opponents.
If you think he can’t continue doing that, just think about where we were less than a month ago. We were on the cusp of Pacquiao-Mayweather becoming a reality.
Now we’re talking Mayweather-Campbell. They’re kidding, right?
WEIGHT-GAIN GAMES: Those who strongly suspect Pacquaio has benefited from performance-enhancing drugs during his ascent to superstardom point to the Filipino southpaw packing roughly 40 pounds on to to his 5-foot-6 1/2 frame, all while maintaining his skill, speed and power.
At 16, Pacquiao weighed 106 pounds for his professional debut Jan. 22, 1995, in the Philippines. By the time he was 30, he weighed a career-high 144 pounds prior to his welterweight championship victory over Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto last Nov. 14 in Las Vegas.
Mayweather weighed 106 pounds when he was 16, too. He won a championship in that weight class at the 1993 National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions in Little Rock, Ark.
By the time the 5-8 Mayweather was 30, he weighed a career-high 150 pounds before his junior middleweight championship victory over Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007 in Las Vegas. That means Mayweather actually added 6 more pounds than Pacquiao and jumped up one more weight class than him over the same 14-year period in their respective careers, all while maintaining his skill, speed and power.
Does his successful development mean Mayweather must have sampled performance enhancers? Or is Mayweather simply a gifted hard worker who deserves recognition as one of the top two pound-for-pound boxers in the world?
He never has tested positive for anything, either, so whether we’re right or wrong, shouldn’t we assume that until proven otherwise, Mayweather is clean? Do you see where we’re going with this?
HOLT-ING PATTERN: His promoters at Top Rank Inc. still are trying to secure his next opponent, but former World Boxing Organization junior welterweight champ Kendall Holt’s long layoff likely will end Feb. 27 in Atlantic City.
Holt (25-3, 13 KOs), a Paterson native and Woodland Park resident, is expected to participate in an International Boxing Federation elimination match that night. The winner will become the mandatory challenger for IBF 140-pound champ Juan Urango (22-2-1, 17 KOs).
The Colombian-born Urango probably will box World Boxing Council titleholder Devon Alexander (19-0, 12 KOs) in a unification fight March 6 in Las Vegas, but if Holt wins Feb. 27, he would face either the winner of the Urango-Alexander encounter or another IBF-ranked contender for the IBF title in his next fight.
Numerous opponents have turned down Top Rank’s offer to fight Holt, but his handlers expect Romania’s Ionut Dan Ion (25-0, 13 KOs), Las Vegas’ Steve Forbes (34-7, 10 KOs) or South Africa’s Kaizer Mabuza (22-6-3, 13 KOs) to fight Holt six weeks from Saturday at Bally’s Events Center.
Source: northjersey.com
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