By Manuel Perez: In watching Nate Campbell (33-5-1, 25 KOs) struggle badly on Saturday night against a rail thin Ali Funeka, I have to say I don’t give Campbell, 37, much if any chance at doing well at this weight. Campbell looked horrible against Funeka, getting hit a lot, having his face puffed up and barely making it out of the single digits in punch output. Against the bigger, stronger and equally fast light welterweights, like Ricardo Torres, Timothy Bradley, Kendall Holt, Junior Witter, Andreas Kotelnik, to name just a few, Campbell will be a huge disadvantage.
Frankly, I think he’s nuts to leave the soft lightweight division where he’s probably the best fighter other than Manny Pacquiao, to move up against people with bigger power than him. Campbell has been used to fighting against people that he’s stronger than in the lightweight division.
Well, that’s not going to be happening at light welterweight. I can imagine what would happen if somehow Campbell was able to get pitted against a bulldog like Ricky Hatton, and it wouldn’t be pretty. If that was Hatton that Campbell was facing on Saturday night, Campbell would likely be in a coma and not just licking his wounds.
I like Campbell as a fighter, but he’s just too small and weak to compete with the better fighters in the light welterweight division. For sure, I think he can beat many of the lesser fighters in that division, because like the lightweight division, there’s a lot of dead weight in there that can easily be picked off. But once you get to the top four spot at light welterweight, then Campbell runs into a lot of problems.
We got fighters like Victor Ortiz, Hatton, Devon Alexander and Lamont Peterson, and those aren’t even the champions. I see all of them beating Campbell with ease, especially Hatton and Ortiz. In those cases, I doubt Campbell would make it past the 6th round.
I think Campbell won’t stay at light welterweight for long. He’s too smart for that, and once he starts losing once or twice, he’ll move back down where the pickings are easier. If he was younger and had more time, I think he might stick around longer and try and work up to the weight class, but he’s too old for that now. Against these kinds of fighters, you have to have a lot of power, a high work rate and good defensive skills.
Campbell has none of those things, which is why I see his experiment trip into the light welterweight division doomed from the very start. Hopefully, he’s smart enough to figure things out after he loses for the first time and doesn’t waste a year or two getting beaten up by the young lions in the division before moving back down. That would be a pity if he did that, especially when he can always move back down and beat one of the lightweights like Juan Diaz to regain a title.
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