Nate Campbell vs Robbie Peden 1 - 20 year anniversary of the most bizarre knockout

Campbell was also stopped by Peden in the rematch, a fight that may not have ever happened had he just taken care of business in the first fight. So the taunting actually cost him 2 losses on his record.

 

Don King, anyone? LOL.

I prefer to remember Campbell for his very unexpected defeat of Juan Diaz. That was impressive. This was rock bottom obviously.

 

Every time a showboat loses, an angel gets its wings.

 

His trainer needed to pop back up at the bottom of the screen afterward & say, “Uhhh…I didn’t tell him to do that in the corner. Just so you know.”

 

That’s probably all it was but that was wildly optimistic & reckless even by showboating standards. I’m not entirely convinced the explanation is that innocent.

 

This was one of the funniest KOs to me. There’s always showboating and taunting, and then there’s this lol

The Juan Diaz fight mentioned above was a good fight. A lot of action at close quarters, with Nate digging in some brutal uppercuts and hooks to the body, and then really taking over in the final 3 or 4 rounds.

 

I love when cocky fighters lose. Thanks Paden.

 

Peden was an excellent amateur, going to the 92 and 96 Olympics. He left Australia when he turned Pro and was a sparring partner for Pernell Whitaker, Arturo Gatti etc. I was good mates with him around this time. He said he was badly hurt by that body shot but believes he would've got through it. I'm not so sure haha.

Spent the day with him on the day of the rematch. He was cool calm and collected, betting on horses and just chilling out. He was incredibly confident that he had Campbell's number by that point. I admit I wasn't sure but he boxed really well in the return. There was a fair bit of needle in the lead up to the return, but I know they're in touch with each other quite a bit these days over social media and that needle between the old warriors has gone.

 

Can I posit a really out there…I don’t even want to say theory, it’s too loose even for that. But…if you lose in such a way that everybody says it barely counts as a victory for your opponent, & you leave them feeling like anybody could’ve beat you the way that ended, that kind of promotes a rematch pretty well, right? So you could get two paydays out of the one fighter…but then he wasn’t fighting De La Hoya or Mayweather & getting paid squillions for Peden, was he? LOL.

 

Gold.