Bradley-Campbell close to official

After plenty of rumors, FightNews says that it looks like WBO junior welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley will defend against former three-body lightweight titleholder Nate Campbell on August 1. Showtime will televise, and a site for the fight has yet to be determined.

Bradley (24-0, 11 KO) is coming off of a victory over Kendall Holt, which briefly unified Holt's WBO title and Bradley's WBC strap. After the win, Bradley was forced to give up the WBC title, which was silly, but pretty much business as usual for boxing. Campbell (33-5-1, 25 KO) won a hard-fought fight against Ali Funeka in February, though he failed to make the 135-pound limit and had to vacate his titles. He said immediately after the fight that he'd be headed to 140 pounds.

While the division is ruled by Manny Pacquiao, nobody at 140 is a suspected opponent for the current pound-for-pound king, and Bradley and Campbell are about as good an opponent for each other as it gets. Bradley, at 25, is 12 years Campbell's junior, but physically, Nate is a slightly bigger man, with one inch of height and three inches of reach to his advantage.

The WBO is also reportedly saying that though there is a rematch clause attached to the deal for Bradley-Campbell, the winner will be expected to fight Lamont Peterson (27-0, 13 KO).