THREE of Katie Taylor’s 21 wins could have been losses claimed her opponent Chantelle Cameron as the gloves came off at the press conference in Dublin Castle.
Cameron says she’ll do all she can to take the decision out of the judges’ hands when she takes on the pride of Ireland at the 3Arena. She was at pains to shine a spotlight on the ringside officials as she looked ahead to the clash of the two undisputed world champions.
“In all honesty I’ve seen it three times with Katie when she’s been in close fights and she’s got the nod when it could have been a draw, or could easily have gone the other way,” she said.
“So obviously that is a concern but that’s out of my hands, I can’t control that. If there’s something that I can’t control I’m not going to let it eat me up, I just need to make sure that I do all I can do in the gym and do what I know I can do.
“It’s a massive task ahead of me I’ve got to make sure that I make it a convincing win, I’ll try not to make it close.”
Cameron is the naturally bigger woman and has eight stoppage wins on her 17-0 record. She stepped in when Taylor’s rematch with Amanda Serrano fell through and suggested that the judging for Taylor-Serrano was open to interpretation.
“It was very close,” she said.
“If Serrano had won, you wouldn’t have argued, if it had been a draw, you wouldn’t have argued. In that fight and the Deplhine (Persoon) fight I definitely saw flaws that I can pick up on.”
Read more: Katie Taylor: Chantelle Cameron judging claim is "nonsense"
She declined to say what those were but her coach Jamie Moore said the fact that she was even being asked about the judging indicated that it could be an issue.
“It’s a concern – not just for us – but everyone is concerned,” he said.
“We’ve seen some really bad decisions over the last few years – and I’m not going to bang-on about which ones. Obviously it’s an issue but, as Chantelle said, we can’t focus on that, we have to control what we can control and have faith and trust in the judges that they’ll make the right decision.”
Cameron didn’t turn pro until she was 26. After her amateur career for Great Britain her plan was to go to university and become a PE teacher.
Five years’ later, she’s the undisputed world light-welterweight champion and says she has “ticked every box” in preparation for defending her belts in Saturday night’s historic rumble against Katie Taylor at Dublin’s 3Arena.
“The universe works in strange ways,” says Cameron with a smile.
“I turned professional and started boxing on Sky TV. Women’s boxing was growing then – Katie Taylor was the trailblazer, she opened up the door for me and the rest of the female boxers - and that’s when I thought I’d have a real go at it but it wasn’t in my plans to begin with.”
FACE OFF @KatieTaylor vs @chantellecam
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) May 18, 2023
Undisputed World Super-Lightweight Championship#TaylorCameron | DAZN pic.twitter.com/scs2aYSzje
She has boxed Taylor before – an EU Championships semi-final in 2011 - when she was “pretty novicey” having just switched from kick-boxing and says that contest will have “absolutely no relevance” on Saturday night.
Fighting Taylor was always the ultimate for her but she admits that she never really believed it would happen. After Taylor’s rematch with Amanda Serrano fell through it was Taylor who reached out to her on social media and she immediately accepted the fight of her life.
“It (fighting Taylor) was always mentioned and people always talked about it but, in all honesty, I didn’t think it would happen but here I am now,” she says and she and her coach Jamie Moore have travelled confident that Taylor won’t be able to live with her workrate and power.
“I’m always nervous before a fight and this is the biggest fight I’ve had – facing Katie Taylor, the pound-for-pound best,” she adds.
“I use my nerves as fuel. I’ve ticked every box and more in my preparation. Beating Katie Taylor puts my right up at the top so this could be life-changing for me but my only focus is on winning and whatever comes after that will come.”
