By Jason Kotar, WBO/IBF lightweight champion Nate Campbell initially weighed in at 138 lbs. for Saturday’s bout against Ali Funeka. He was given two hours to lose 3 lbs., but arrived back at the scale slightly after the two hours had expired. Campbell weighed 137.5 upon his return, and thus loses both titles. The bout will still take place, and if Funeka wins, he will claim the vacant title. Funeka weighed in 133.5 on the first try. Ironically, Campbell’s previous fight with Joan Guzman was cancelled when Guzman didn’t make weight. Photo by Javiel Centeno.
Other Boxing News 2009
Barrera-Khan on PPV!
Integrated Sports will distribute a pay-per-view card headlined by Amir Khan versus “The Baby Faced Assassin” Marco Antonio Barrera, Saturday, March 14th live from The M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, U.K. There will be three 12-round championship bouts featured on the “Khan-Barrera” card, for live viewing at 4 PM/ET – 1 PM/PT on cable and satellite pay-per-view via iN Demand, TVN, DirecTV and Dish Network in the United States, as well as Viewer’s Choice and Bell TV in Canada, for a suggested retail price of only $24.95. Khan (29-2, 25 KOs), 2004 Olympic silver medallist, faces multi-division champion Barrera (65-6, 42 KOs) in the main event. The two other PPV fights will be former WBO cruiserweight titleholder Enzo Maccarinelli (29-2, 22 KOs) against Ola “Kryptonite” Afolabi (13-1-3, 5 KOs) for the vacant WBO cruiserweight belt, while WBO super middleweight champion Nicky “Cookie” Cook (29-1, 16 KOs) defends his title belt against Roman “Rocky” Martinez (21-0-1, 12 KOs).
Arthur Abraham undisputed
Trainer Ulli Wegner is convinced that Arthur Abraham will be the undisputed middleweight king by the end of the year. The undefeated 28-year-old takes on Lajuan Simon on March 14th in what will be the ninth defense of the IBF title he won in December 2005. After WBA champion Felix Sturm avoided an all-German unfication showdown, King Arthur has now set his sights on Kelly Pavlik’s WBC and WBO belts. “Arthur has worked very hard in training. He has high goals for 2009,” Wegner lauded. However, the coaching legend warned his fighter to take one step at a time. “We are not thinking too far ahead,” Wegner added. “Our full focus is on Simon now. He has not lost any of his 24 fights so we expect a hard battle. Arthur needs to be in top shape to defeat him.” Wegner and Abraham paid a visit to Kiel yesterday where they staged a press conference alongside First Lady Cecilia Braekhus, who will fight Denmark’s Vinni Skovgaard for the world title. “It is good to be back in Kiel,” King Arthur said. “My knockout victory against Elvin Ayala certainly was one to remember. The crowd support was fantastic. I am looking forward to returning.”
Here we go again. Recently, Castillo, Corrales, Guzman and now Campbell lost the battle at the scale. All were pretty muched trashed in the media and on line. Nate will get the same treatment I am sure. 2 things, #1 The fans really hate to see this and we are all disappointed. #2 No way the fighter likes it either. You get to a certain age and you just can not get down in weight anymore. Unfortunately I do not see Nate being a factor at 140.
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