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 0A 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 seemed20to 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.
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