KATIE Taylor dismissed Chantelle Cameron’s suggestion that she’s been favoured by the judges three times in her 21-fight career as “nonsense”.
Taylor, the undisputed lightweight champion, takes arguably the greatest risk of a career punctuated by so many highlights when she steps up to light-welterweight to fight the Northampton native who is also an undefeated and undisputed champion.
Cameron is entitled to her opinion on the judges’ scorecards at Taylor’s fights but there’s not much real evidence to back it up. Taylor was pushed hard by Delfine Persoon and by Amanda Serrano but she was the deserving winner on both occasions.
“What can I say about that?” she asked when Cameron’s opinion was relayed to her.
“Who cares really? Every fight was well won, well deserved so it’s nonsense.”
Taylor has the pedigree, Cameron has age (at 32 she’s four years’ younger) on her side, Taylor has home advantage, Cameron is naturally bigger. Whether she is stronger and has greater stamina remains to be seen and that’s what makes Saturday night’s rumble on the Liffey such an unmissable match-up.
So experienced now, Taylor seemed remarkably relaxed and calm when she met reporters at Dublin Castle to look ahead to the long-awaited home debut that is so close now.
A rematch with Puerto Rican Amanda Serrano was her first choice and once that fell through she approached Cameron to make this fight.
So often in men’s boxing, the fights the fans want to see don’t happen or are kicked down the road because of financial and contractual concerns but not this time. Taylor offered and Cameron said: ‘Let’s get it on…’
With so much hype going on around them, Taylor’s coach Ross Enamait said the pre-fight camp in Connecticut had gone on as normal.
“I wouldn’t say anything’s been different,” he said.
“I don’t really care where we fight, we just want to show up and put on a great performance and it doesn’t matter if it’s in Dublin or the middle of the desert.
“We’ve had great sparring with bigger girls, we’ve been doing 15 rounds so I don’t really care what Chantelle Cameron weighs – it’s not a weight contest, it’s a boxing contest. It’s called boxing, it’s not called knockouts, we’re going to box.”
Taylor’s previous appearance at the 3Arena (then the Point Depot) was on the undercard of Harry Hawkins-trained Bernard Dunne’s unforgettable win against Ricardo Cordoba. She was an amateur then and returns as the headline act against Cameron, who began her pro career as a super-featherweight, won her first world title at lightweight and now reigns supreme at light-welter.
They met on Tuesday for a face-off. There was a long stare but no giveaways of nervousness or phoney aggression on either side.
“I think those things are nonsense to be quite honest. People asked me afterwards: ‘What did you see in her eyes?’” said Taylor with a smile.
“I didn’t see anything in her eyes – you never see anything in a person’s eyes when you’re facing-off.”
She’ll see deep into her opponent’s eyes on Saturday night and what Cameron is made. She predicts a fight to remember: “This fight, regardless of where it is, has all the makings of another epic fight. “Stylistically I think it’s going to be fantastic and another very, very exciting fight but it’s amazing, when you’re in there all the crowd, all the noise (doesn’t affect you). The only voice you focus in on is your coach’s. Even at Madison Square Garden, I didn’t focus on the noise or the crowd around me, you’re just focussed on one voice, your coach.”
