"My kid can fight though. That's the one thing I know. My kid has been trained and schooled how to fight. I get kids that are students of what I'm teaching them. I'm going to build a champion. I'm going to build a lot of champions, but my question is, who wants to go down this road with me? I'll break a guy down to how he place his feet. I can look across the ring and tell how a trainer has been training that guy by how he place his feet when he sits on that stool...if you're going to work with me, I'm going to show you how to do it right. I'm going to show you how to roll with a punch. I'm not going to teach you now to fight like me. I'm going to take what you have and build on what you have," stated former world champion Nate Campbell, who talked about his transition into training fighters and much more. Check it out!
PC: My man, how is it going?
NC: I'm blessed, man.
PC: You're now on the other side of the spectrum; you're training fighters now. You gave great advice to your guy, Curtis Harper, in his fight against Chris Arreola. He just came up short. What did you think of that fight?
NC: My kid;s issue was not that he wasn't as good as the guy he was facing out there. It was that his confidence wasn't as high. Most guys come into the ring with confidence. My kid was coming off of not being trained properly. He had guys to train him, but they were always about fast and strong and put him in a fight and see what happens. The way that goes is the kid has been getting by off of being big and strong. I had to keep telling him for awhile, "Look man, you could fight." I had him for almost 2 years and I had to talk him into certain things and talk him through fights. But I know what he has. I know what he can be. I know more about what he can be than he does. I'm with a young man that doesn't know all of his attributes as well as I do and I'm okay with that.
PC: Did you think Arreola hurting him so bad early played a part in the way he fought the rest of the fight?
NC: Truth be told, on the way to the ring, he was mentally already...whatever. He was already contemplating how he was going to do it; what was he going to do. This was a big stage for him. I came to the realization that I had to fight the mental part for him. I needed him to do as much as I taught him in the gym and from there, I just had to will my fighter. When he went down in the first round, it took years off of my life. I didn't know what to tell him because I didn't know how he would react. When he went down, everybody around the ring started to panic and I was like, "This ain't the time to fall to pieces. This is the time to get it together and man up and let's make this happen." That was my time to stand up and make something happen for my team and that's what I did.
PC: Obviously you have been on both sides of the spectrum, both as a fighter and now of course as a trainer. Is it the same approach? Do you break down fighters and other trainers as you did as a fighter or is it different now?
NC: Listen, I'm gonna tell y'all something and I want you to hear what I gotta say. The average guy that you put in the ring across from me, the average guy that trains fighters now don't know nowhere near what I know about fighting. He can tell you what it looks like, but he can't tell you what it feels like. I can talk from an actual "what this feels like" position. You can talk to me and tell me what you think it feels like. See, a lot of these trainers are trainers because they had an amateur kid or they are friends with somebody and they can get you in shape. These are what I call strength and conditioning guys. They can get guys in great, great shape. My kid took the fight on short notice. My kid was in great shape, but he wasn't in physical ripped up shape. My kid can fight though. That's the one thing I know. My kid has been trained and schooled how to fight. I get kids that are students of what I'm teaching them. I'm going to build a champion. I'm going to build a lot of champions, but my question is, who wants to go down this road with me? I'll break a guy down to how he place his feet. I can look across the ring and tell how a trainer has been training that guy by how he place his feet when he sits on that stool. I know what I'm dealing with by the way a guy holds his hands and how he feints shots. You have all of these great athletes in boxing, but there are very few true boxers. You can't tell me many guys that is a true boxer.
PC: I was just speaking to Derrick James and he was saying pretty much what you just said. he feels he has an advantage when he's training against a guy who never fought. And that's not to say all trainers had to fight at some point, but as former fighters, I can see why you would feel that's an advantage for you.
NC: Listen, they thought that Chris Arreola was going to come in and walk through my guy like ex lax. Guess what happened! When I stepped up to the mic at the press conference, I said if nothing else, my guy will be well schooled. He may not have the talent or the experience as the other guy, but my kid going to be well schooled. They didn't bank on my kid having the amount of heart and talent that he had. I got a bunch of kids. I got a white kid; I call him "Smoke." I call him "Smoking" Sam. Sam smokes and I'm trying to break him out of that habit and getting smoking out of his life. Sam can straight up fight. I'll take this white boy and go anywhere with him and these lil' heavyweights and cruiserweights, we'll whoop that ass. The kid can fight, but if you're going to work with me, I'm going to show you how to do it right. I'm going to show you how to roll with a punch. I'm not going to teach you now to fight like me. I'm going to take what you have and build on what you have. See, my foundation is not perfect; no fighters is. Every fighter has a flawed foundation, especially if their trainer was never a fighter. You can read a book, but my foundation was natural ability that was built on a virtuoso trainer. I had a trainer that taught me to box; hands up and box. And if you guys have seen me fight, you saw me straight up box. When I fought Kid Diamond, I straight up boxed. When I fought Juan Diaz, I put boxing in the passenger seat until I needed it. Boxing was my co-pilot. I didn't need pure boxing then. You gotta know when to do certain things. A lot of these trainers can teach guys what to do, but they can't teach them when to do it. Here is what is even more important than that. Teach a man what not to do. Most of my career, early career, I trained myself. I was 19-0 with 17 knockouts and for most of those fights, I trained myself. I didn't get Buddy McGirt and John David Jackson until late in my career. I'm starting to understand that anybody can jump up and throw a towel over their shoulder and say I'm a trainer. And if they got a kid with some talent, they will fool you.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]