Bradley-Campbell made official for August 1

It's the best 140-pound fight that doesn't involve Manny Pacquiao, probably, and on August 1 on Showtime, titleholder Timothy Bradley will clash with Nate Campbell at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, California.

Bradley (24-0, 11 KO) is coming off of a big win over Kendall Holt, a fight that won him Holt's WBO title but eventually forced him to vacate the WBC strap he won from Junior Witter in 2008. Campbell (33-5-1, 25 KO) beat Ali Funeka in February, though he failed to make weight for that 135-pound title fight, losing his belts on the scales. He now makes the official move to 140, and does so against arguably the division's top fighter who plans to actually fight within the division.

Bradley hails from Palm Springs, Calif., so the titleholder will have some home field advantage, and I think it's arguable at best to consider Campbell to be the toughest challenge of Bradley's rising career. It's sort of easy to forget now how big of an upset Bradley over Witter was. After all, Witter was the No. 2 junior welterweight in the world, behind only Ricky Hatton, and Bradley beat him on his own turf. Campbell, at 37, is aging, and while he's the slighty bigger man in terms of frame, he's likely on the downside of what has been a rollercoaster pro career.

The fight gives Showtime a nice attraction for August, and I'm hoping some miracle will arise where the Witter-Devon Alexander fight is paired with this one, giving us a fine double-header of 140 pound action. Don King is involved with both fights and wants to put Witter-Alexander in the States, but it's not always so easy.

Gary Shaw, the lead promoter for the fight and the man behind Bradley's career, had a horrible line in the press release: "Look for a SOUPberb performance against Campbell."

And it's like, really?