Campbell to Marquez: Bring It On!

May 3, 2008

IBF/WBO/WBA lightweight king Nate Campbell welcomes the opportunity to fight Juan Manuel Marquez, but not in November as proposed by Golden Boy Promotions. In regards to that potential fight, Campbell had this to say: "Let's do this. I'm ready to fight right now. But this waiting around until November business? What's that about? I'm ready to fight. I've BEEN ready to fight. I'm getting married in two weeks, and I can go straight to camp after my honeymoon. There's no reason this fight couldn't happen in late July or August. No reason at all.

"That's the problem today. See, all these cats sit around and only fight twice or three times a year, because their "promoter" won't do anything without HBO or Showtime paying the freight. I'm with Don King and One Punch. Now I leave the business stuff up to them, but I'm sure that if Golden Boy came with a reasonable number for Marquez, then Don could do this fight on PPV himself, and not sit around for seven months waiting on a damn date. Doesn't anybody actually promote fights anymore? A reporter who I like a lot told me one time, I won't say his name cause I don't want to jam him up, but anyways, he told me that Don and Arum are the only real "promoters" left anymore. That everyone else are just booking agents for the TV networks. Man, that cat knows his sh-t. So my thing is this. If Golden Boy really wants to make the Marquez fight, and isn't talking about November just to make both me and Marquez unavailable for a possible Pacquiao fight around that time, then lets go ahead and do this. Come up with a reasonable number for Marquez, get out of the way, and let Don distribute the damn fight.

"And one other thing. At least have the damn respect to notify the WBO that after playing all these games with us (Team Campbell and the WBO) for the past month regarding Casamayor fighting me, that you're still gonna do Casamayor-Diaz instead. That way, the WBO can strip his a--, and get him out of the way so either Khan or Peterson could be my WBO mandatory. Not only are you holding me up, but you're holding up these other guys who just want their shot. The shot that they fought for and earned, and the shot that you don't even want. Do the right thing, and stop playing these silly a-- games with peoples' careers."