GL: How's everything going less than two weeks away from your big fight with Nate Campbell on March 8? "Everything is going great Greg. I'm closing up training camp. The hardest parts of it are behind me, now it's just maintaining keeping everything together for the 8th, making sure I don't get any injuries or have anything out of the ordinary happen. I'm very excited and ready to go back to Mexico as a champion instead of a newcomer."

GL: Nate Campbell made it clear to me that he's going to work your body in a way that it hasn't been worked before. He described your style as that of a bully who is only used to dishing out the punishment, but unable to absorb it. How do you feel about that?

Juan Diaz: "If he wants to go for my body, then go ahead. He's going to be more than welcome to try to attack my body, but I've prepared for all of my opponents and what they do best. I know Nate has some great body shots and he throws some great combinations. It's funny because I've never been called a bully, but I guess now being a three time world champion and the way I see my style going, I guess that's what it is, so I'm going to go in there on the 8th to be the bully."

GL: So that's the gameplan? You're coming out to bully him?

JD: "I feel very comfortable in the lightweight division, there's not too many guys who can push me around now that I've developed into a man. I have man strength now. Before I was fighting as a boy, but I now I can feel myself getting stronger and stronger with each training camp and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable as a champion and as a lightweight. I plan on staying at this weight until I become the undisputed lightweight champion of the world. Nate Campbell is in the way of me accomplishing my goals and for that precise reason I am not taking him lightly. He is in my way and I'm going to go out there and do whatever is necessary to win. If I have to bully him, or do whatever I have to do to come away with the victory."

GL: Your last two fights have ended with your opponent quitting on their stool. Will this fight go the distance?

JD: "I never planned on going for the KO or TKO. I always get ready for twelve rounds of boxing, but if Nate Campbell wants to come to fight for twelve rounds and dig my body it's going to be a pretty tough twelve rounds for the both of us. It's just going to be a matter of who can stay in there the longest."

GL: I asked Nate Campbell if he was concerned about fighting a Mexican American champion in Cancun. He said no because Mexican Americans don't get the same love. He said you would play the Mexican role up, but how Mexican can you be living in Houston. How do you feel about that?

NC: "You know he's half right. A lot of Mexican people think that we Mexicans who come to the United States are less of a Mexican because we deserted our country, but not at all. We come to make a better life for our families. My parents came here to make a better life for us. Coming from two Mexican parents who hardly speak a word of English and who carry the Mexican traditions that they would normally carry if they were in Mexico, I don't know how much less of a Mexican I am. I was brought up that way and I live that way. It doesn't really matter if I get the love or the respect I deserve from the Mexican people. All I want to do is put on a great, great fight for boxing fans. It doesn't matter if you're from a specific country or not. Fans know who puts up great fights. You can always support your guys, whether he's Russian, African, Latino or white, what's most important is the fans and they want to see great boxing matches.

"If you look at the Mexican champions all over the world, there's not that many great Mexican champions left anymore and they're going to be looking for somebody to look up to. I think that will all go down the drain when they ask me where I'm from, I'll be their champion because of the way I fight."

GL: Who do you like in Pacquiao-Marquez II?

JD: "I'm picking Marquez. Pacquiao is a great figher with tremendous power. If you look back in their first fight, he was knocked down three times and he still came back to get a draw. This time I don't think he's going to take Pacquiao lightly and he'll be looking for the left hand. I believe that he's going to pull off the win. To me, Marquez is a much better boxer than Manny Pacquiao. He doesn't have the same power, but he can punch. Pacquiao has improved a lot but I don't think he's improved enough to beat Marquez."

GL: Closing thoughts?

JD: "I just want to let the fans know that I'm going to be in another country, but I'm going be fighting with the same tenacity that made me a world champion. I'm fighting to give the fans great fights and in a way clean up the sport of boxing. A lot of people assume that we're dumb and stupid and we might not be good for anything but getting hit in the head, but that's not true. I believe that one man change a lot of things, and maybe I'm putting too much of a burden on myself, but somebody has to step up to the plate and try to clean up the sport."

M

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