Bradley vs Campbell - Classic thoughts

heres an article i did for it

discuss the fight

Bradley vs Campbell - The Changing Battle

By Greg Paterson

Saturday the 1st of August brings us a potential Fight of the Year between Timothy Bradley and Nate Campbell for the formers WBO Light Welterweight title.

In boxing there’s a famous cliché of the old, maybe even unmotivated, champion fighting the young upstart contender. Well in this fight the roles are reversed Nate Campbell is an outspoken Granddad who having giving up the Lightweight championship has moved to Light Welterweight to fight the polite and determined Timothy Bradley.

Campbell has been a perennial contender at Lightweight for what has seemed like decades and after 2 failed chances before he proved to be third time lucky in upsetting the rising star Juan Diaz in a barnburner. Nate has now tasted the success and is determined to recapture it up at Light Welterweight.

Timothy Bradley came out of nowhere to defeat the tricky and experienced WBC Light Welterweight champion Junior Witter to take his belt. Since winning this title the determined, devout Christian Bradley has defended it twice against Edner Cherry (UD over 12) and in a unification against the brilliant but lazy Kendall Holt (UD over 12). After partially unifying the championships Bradley was forced to give up his WBC title. Bradley is the rising star of the division and is one of boxing’s hottest prospects as an undefeated, young champion but so was Juan Diaz when he fought Campbell.

The style clash in this fight is an interesting one. They are both pressure fighters as well as good classic boxers. Both of them are excellent athletes in terms of speed, strength and stamina. Bradley is an aggressive pressure fighter who uses his fast hands and feet to score quick flurries. Campbell is more of a steady aggressive boxer putting on a more subtle pressure, however Campbell often fights his opponents fight instead of his own but he has shown he can beat his opponent at their own game.

Both fighters have weaknesses and strengths that counteract each other. A major factor in this fight will be who can capitalise on his opponent’s weakness and use their own strengths to their advantage. Nate Campbell thrives on fighting his opponents fight and beating him at it so perhaps Nate Campbell could play into Bradleys’ hands in doing so.

This fight, I think, will be a great one – a possible fight of the year as I mentioned before. The early rounds will start with Campbell trying to make a statement perhaps taking the fight in close quarters. Bradley often squares up when in close and this will play into Nates’hands as Bradley will be off balance and not in a position to gain leverage in his punches. Bradley however has very fast hands and could pose problems early for Campbell who will have to adjust to his speed and time him accordingly. The early rounds I feel will be fought in close with Campbell gaining the edge.

Bradley showed when he fought Kendall Holt he can adapt in fights and this is what he will have to do. The middle rounds will become more interesting as Bradley will have adjusted and will try to use his foot speed to get in and out with fast flurries. In doing so Bradley will be forced to lead and he has some major flaws when leading. He throws his jab and drops it after he’s thrown it. Campbell has a expert right hook counter uncommon to most fighters which will be able to find a home over Bradleys left hand. Bradley’s speed however should help him here and maybe just let him edge these sessions.

If you think the middle rounds will be interesting the late rounds will be fascinating. Both fighters will know each others style better and have made the necessary adjustments. I think Bradley, who has superb fitness, will try to carry the fight to Campbell who at 37 might lack the stamina of the younger fighter. However as Bradley carries a fight forward he can lack concentration and be caught with silly shots as he advances, Campbell being an old and clever pro will be more than happy to take advantage of these openings.

In the end it will come down to who can make the adjustments and perhaps who wants to make the adjustments. I feel each fighter can beat the other so it’s hard to pick a winner. This is a great fight for boxing as this is a well matched, exciting fight and a brave defence for a young champion like Bradley. As much as I would like to say the young focused Bradley to win I feel Nate Campbell will just edge it in a split decision. However that won’t be the end of Bradley as a young determined fighter like himself will not give up after a loss and will strive to be the best as he is doing now.

 

Allen

Juan Diaz tried that

 

what you thought today was sunday or the fight was sunday

 

heres my article i wrote on it

Bradley vs Campbell – The Aftermath, The Controversy and the Cut
By Greg Paterson

What a fight this was going to be! I had it a physical battle of wills and skills to determine supremacy between the two proud warriors Timothy Bradley and Nate Campbell, how wrong was I?

Campbell came to the ring with the same detached look he always wears for fights, the sound of ‘Thunder’ by AC/DC boomed round the arena in tribute of Arturo Gatti. In contrast Bradley came into the ring with a live rapper rapping his stuff in the ring as Bradley focused himself and sang along on the way to the ring.

In the ring Bradley looked so focus, I thought he was possessed; Campbell had that same detached look as if Bradley didn’t even bother him. The fighters were announced still they never waivered in there own confidence.

The start of round 1 Campbell came out to the centre of the ring as I anticipated but that’s where my prediction of the fight ceased to be correct. Campbell tried to put pressure on Bradley and got him into the corner in the first 30 seconds; Bradley turned Nate in the corner and landed a flurry, brilliant stuff by the young champion. Campbell still trudged forward trying to cut off the and get Bradley on the inside where Nate could fight him. Bradley turned Nate and landed flurries ,with good body shots mixed, in the entire first round in a great show of ring generalship – which I admit I thought Campbell would have the edge here. Campbell’s only success in this round was when he side stepped to his right and bulled Bradley backwards onto the ropes where Campbell landed a straight right to the body and a left hook. There was a lot of holding up close by both fighters and 1 or 2 slight head clashes but that was anticipated. Bradleys’ round.

Round 2 had much the same sort of feel as round 1. Bradley seemed to control the ring and Campbell just couldn’t corner him and when he did he seemed slow to let his shots off, like his reflexes had diminished greatly since the Funeka fight. Bradley this round started to fight up close whenever they ended up there and was getting the better of Campbell. Again my prediction was coming to be portrayed as horribly wrong. Again a few more head clashes and Campbell complained to the referee about them. Bradleys’ round.

The 3rd round started off the same Bradley controlling the fight using the ring and boxing with flurries. About half way through the round Campbell went against the ropes and Bradley came along the rope towards him, as he did so he threw a flurry, in the middle of the flurry Bradleys head recklessly came flying towards Campbell and hit him above his right eye. Campbell ducked his head as he stepped back as Bradley threw a left and a right uppercut which seemed to have hit Campbell’s gloves. As Campbell stepped out of Bradleys’ range he pointed to his eye to show the referee he had been cut by a clash of heads. As Campbell was protesting to the referee Bradley (rightly) unleashed a barrage of punches all over Campbell for a good 20 seconds. Campbell weathered the storm well but his eye was obviously bothering him. Bradleys hellacious attack rescinded for a moment as Campbell got out of the corner but that was only a momentary respite as Bradley unleashed another flurry of shots but again Campbell weathered them well for 30 odd seconds before getting close enough to hold and Bradley obliged to hold to get his wind back. After the referee broke them apart Bradley flurried for the remaining 10 or so seconds, then the bell rang.

As Campbell walked back to his corner he told his cornermen, ‘I can’t see!’. The corner sat him down but he persisted saying he couldn’t see. Soon the doctor was in the corner and again Campbell said ‘I Can’t see!’ The doctor then asked him if he wanted to continue and I couldn’t make out Campbell’s answer but a few seconds later the referee stated ‘If you can’t see, I will have to stop the fight.’ And he did exactly what he said he would by stopping the fight at that moment.

Watching it live I hadn’t noticed the head butt by Bradley that caused the cut so when the ref called it a TKO win ,on cuts, for Bradley I thought it was deserved as you should always give the benefit of the doubt that a punch caused a cut and not a head clash. However after seeing the replay I saw the sickening accidental clash and knew instantly this should be a No-Contest as per the rules.

The referee in the ring exclaimed to the Showtime presenter, ‘I saw the headbutt but I saw a punch after it and I’m going on what I saw last.’ Now I thought the referee could have ruled this as a TKO if he hadn’t seen the headbutt like myself but he had claimed to have seen the headbutt but still called it a clash of heads. This astounds me. This is why I propose there should be an extra official who has the benefit of ‘play back TV’ to view such instances and make the call himself instead of the referee, as incidents’ like this would be avoided.

Campbell was fuming at this decision and directly questioned the referee and was shouting abuse around the ring. This to me is not the behaviour I like to see in the ring, if Campbell had an issue he could have gone about it in a more appropriate way. However, saying that Campbell is a likeable guy and he said himself ‘I have never questioned decisions going against me before but this is about right and wrong.’ And he did have a point that he hadn’t complained about decisions before and maybe this was a moment of madness (but deserved) for him.

The Showtime presenter asked Bradley what he thought of it all. Bradley was quite diplomatic saying ‘he did feel a headbutt but he just did his job.’ And he ‘didn’t know’ if a headbutt caused the cut. The presenter then asked Campbell and Don King what they thought but the protested the stoppage and said it should have been a NC. After this Campbell claimed he still couldn’t see right and left to go to hospital. At this moment the Showtime presenter then enquired about a rematch. Don King was delighted at the idea but Bradleys camp was quite evasive of the question and responded, ‘If Showtime want to buy the fight and the money is right.’ Which they repeated several times. Bradley himself however conceded, ‘He didn’t care’ who he fought next and even alluded to a rematch with Campbell in Campbell’s hometown. This delighted Don King and led to a hilarious situation between Bradley’s trainer Joel Diaz and Don King.

I will leave you with the only correct prediction I found by OnTheGrinds Suge Green who predicted ‘Controversy.’