NATE CAMPBELL

updated February 27, 2008

Nate Campbell's first fight changed his life. He didn't attend kindergarten, so he was a new kid at West Riverside elementary school entering first grade in Jacksonville, Fla. A fifth-grade bully had seen Campbell at the bus stop during his first week at his new school.

"His name was Mike," Campbell said, "and out of nowhere at school he started to slap me around and chased me all the way home, literally."

What Campbell didn't know was that it was unacceptable to run from a fight in his family. A friend of Campbell's father notified him that he saw a boy chasing Nate home. When confronted by his father, Nate told him of the unprovoked attack. His uncle Frank had been teaching him how to "slap box," so Nate's dad was displeased when he didn't put up a fight.

"My father knew something I was too young to know," Campbell said. "In the ghetto, if you run from a fight, you have almost no chance of surviving. To make sure I understood that, they gave me what we call a family whupping. My father, mother, grandmother, aunt-you name it-they immediately let me know it was unacceptable for a Campbell to run.

"The very next day my father took me to the bus stop and asked me to point out the bully who tried to beat me up. He said, 'Go over to him and start throwing punches until I tell you to stop.' I was surprised that I was able to bust up that older kid so easily. I didn't know I could punch like that. Nobody gave me any trouble after that day and I never tolerated bullies or anyone being a bully to someone else after that."

Campbell explained that he grew up in a loving family that didn't always know what was best for them or the children. While Nate idolized his father, alcoholism ravaged him and left him sickly. He was forced to put Nate into the foster care system at age 7. He lived in 15 different schools by the time he reached age 17.

While Nate was taught rudimentary boxing skills from his uncle as a child, he stayed with sports like baseball, basketball, football and cross country. Campbell remembers he was willing to play any sport "that would keep me off the streets on the east side of Jacksonville."

A standout shooting guard in high school, he played sports for fun while attending Florida Community College in his hometown but admitted he "majored in girls, pingpong and pool," and sometimes sold drugs to make money but was never a user.

His life changed in 1989, at age 18, when his daughter Jazmyn was born. The following year he left college, married his high school sweetheart Jan, and began searching for a career.

"I wanted to be a better father than my dad. I wanted to be a good father and husband."

The young father went to work to support his family. Friendly and hard working, Campbell was a big hit with employers at a wide variety of jobs. He did carpentry and forming. He was a dishwasher at Holiday Inn, worked at Burger King, a cook at a fudgery and assistant manager at the Gyro Wrap restaurant.

Working as many as three jobs at one time to support his family, Nate's family had grown to include two more daughters, Janae and Jade. (His marriage lasted until the couple divorced in 2003. Campbell says he and Jan remain good friends: "It didn't work out perfectly but we did a good job. Most important, we were and still are good parents.")

He landed the best job of his life in 1994 when he became a warehousemen for Southern supermarket giant Winn-Dixie. Little did he know at the time, but this would also turn out to be the launching pad for his long-shot boxing career.

"I was a box cutter on the graveyard shift, working from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. I was the guy who cut off the tops of cardboard boxes for all the goods that go into the stores. It was a great career for me and my family."

As fate would have it, Campbell, who possesses unusually long arms for his frame, would often shadow box during inevitable lows during the middle of the night to keep himself awake. A co-worker that drove fork lifts, Jeff Hullett-nicknamed "Big Dog" by Campbell-took notice of Campbell's fast hands and footwork.

"That good ol' boy told me in his Southern drawl, 'You ought to do something with that talent.' I disagreed with him because I was making good money for my family but he stayed on me about pursuing boxing."

The turning point came in the middle of the night when Campbell, as he often did, was entertaining co-workers with his shadow boxing during a break. Hullett pulled up and stopped his fork lift long enough to shout, "Get your black ass out of here with that talent. You're wasting your skills. Couldn'ts never could, shouldn'ts never should and wouldn'ts never would."

Campbell was moved by Big Dog.

"That had a big impact on me," Campbell added. Here's this white guy calling me out like that in front of my friends. The funny thing was that the brothers agreed with him. It became a spark that changed my life."

Campbell discovered his first gym, which also gave him his Galaxxy Warrior nickname: Boxing at the Galaxxy. The year was 1997, and Campbell was 24 years old.

"I'd go running after I got off the graveyard shift and then go to the gym. I took a beating every day for three months. I refused to quit. My father's voice was still in my head, 'Fear no man.' In the fourth month a light came on and I began to take strides. After that, nobody in the gym could beat me."

While still working at Winn-Dixie, Campbell won every state tournament he entered in 1997, 1998 and 1999 including the Sunshine State Games and the Golden Gloves. He also qualified for the Eastern Olympic Trials to be held in Scranton, Pa., but Campbell decided to turn pro because, "I had three kids and they couldn't eat trophies."

So on Feb. 5, 2000, at age 27, Campbell won his debut fight, a first-round technical knockout over Scoey Fields, who weighed 143 pounds to Campbell's 137 1/4.

Campbell would cause a stir by winning his next 22 fights while whittling his weight down to the super featherweight limit of 130 pounds before agreeing to fight Cuban defector Joel Casamayor on just three weeks notice on Jan. 25, 2003. To this day, Campbell insists it was an unfair decision when it was announced he had lost the 10-round contest.

"It was close but I won that fight," Campbell said. "If Casamayor would ever take a rematch I remain ready, willing and able but I'm not holding my breath. I don't think he wants anything more to do with me."

Since the fight with Casamayor, Campbell claims he has faced a "Murderers Row" of opponents. The record illustrates Campbell's claim: Including the fight with Casamayor, excepting a 2005 win over journeyman Johnny Walker, Campbell has faced 12 opponents with a combined record of 316-29-9.

After the loss to Casmayor, Campbell fought to a draw against Edelmiro Martinez (20-2) and won a unanimous decision over Daniel Attah (21-2-1) before agreeing to face Aussie Robbie Peden (24-2) in Temecula, Calif., on March 14, 2004.

Campbell's fourth-round technical knockout loss to Peden is the only defeat the likeable and loquacious Campbell does not dispute.

"I dropped my hands, simple as that," Campbell said of losing to Peden. "The bigger mistake I made was not moving up to lightweight after that. I could no longer be strong at 130 pounds."

The lure of fighting for the International Boxing Federation super featherweight championship in a rematch with Peden-this time in his opponent's home country of Australia, a decision Campbell regrets-was too much to pass up.

"It was an anything goes fight with low blows, headbutts, and even wrestling permitted by the referee. I threw a punch that landed in Peden's chest and they deducted points for a low blow. There was no way they were going to give me any chance to win that fight."

The fight was stopped in favor of Peden in the eighth round.

Campbell agreed to fight Francisco Lorenzo at 132 pounds, but he turned in an out-of-character listless performance that resulted in a split-decision loss.

"I've never felt so bad in my life," Campbell said of the fight. "I know it sounds crazy but I'm fine at 135 pounds but can go no lower and still have fighting strength."

Moving to lightweight re-ignited Campbell's career. He scored a 10th-round technical knockout over highly touted and undefeated Almazbek "Kid Diamond" Raiymkulov (20-0-1) in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 1, 2005, and knocked down Francisco Javier Olvera (15-2) in the first and sixth rounds on Jan. 27, 2006, before he won the fight by sixth-round technical decision after it was stopped due to a cut over Olvera's eye later in the sixth round.

Campbell's roll briefly derailed on April 7, 2006, when he met undefeated South African Isaac Hlatshwayo (23-0) in Tampa. Hlatshwayo made the lightweight limit at 134 1/2 pounds and because it was for the International Boxing Organization lightweight championship, the two fighters had to weigh in again the morning of the fight to make sure neither had gained more than 10 pounds, which both fighters cleared-Hlatshwayo at the day-of limit of 145 pounds.

According to Campbell, Hlatshwayo ballooned to over 160 pounds by fight time. Campbell suffered a loss by split decision that he disputes. Two judges scored the fight for the South African 117-111 and 116-112 while the third judge saw it for Campbell 115-113.

Campbell destroyed once-beaten Pole Matt "Boom Boom" Zegan (37-1) in Chicago on Oct. 7, 2006, as well as Ricky Quiles (39-7-3) in Tampa on March 2, 2006, both by unanimous decision in IBF lightweight title eliminators that made him the top challenger.

Rather than wait for his shot at the IBF champion, he risked his No. 1-ranking and mandatory challenger position to make a hometown appearance in Tampa that was the main event on ESPN's Friday Night Fights on July 6, 2007, opposing Colombian Wilson Alcorro.

Campbell looked very sharp from the outset in what turned out to be a competitive fight. Frustration set in for Alcorro, who suffered a point deduction in round five for low blows. Two consecutive right hands by Campbell dropped Alcorro in the sixth round, and referee Jorge Alonso stopped the beating at 2:39 into the round.

Campbell is co-promoted by Don King Productions and Terry Trekas of One Punch Promotions and is trained by John David Jackson. His favorite boxer of all time is "Sugar" Ray Robinson, but he also admires Mike "The Body Snatcher" McCallum, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Buddy McGirt, Muhammad Ali and John David Jackson.

Outside the ring, Nate doesn't drive new cars, preferring late 1960s and early 1970s Chevrolet muscle cars. He loves nothing more than working on and driving old cars. He has a promise that if he ever wins a world title, he will fix up his cousin Merk's 1992 Silverado pick-up truck.

He loves steaks and the Italian-food chain restaurant, Carrabbas.

Nate's also a film and music buff with eclectic tastes. Some of his favorite musical artists include Musiq Soul Child, Angie Stone, Tim McGraw, Jill Scott, Al Jarreau, Al Green, Donnie Hathaway and Bobby Womack. His favorite films are Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Ace Ventura movies, and the Five Heartbeats. He is also a fan of The Boondocks animated television series based on Aaron McGruder's award-winning comic strip.