CHANTELLE Cameron goes to bed at night dreaming of being the best and pushing herself relentlessly to beat Katie Taylor is what gets her up for training every morning.
Jamie Moore’s unbeaten, undisputed light-welterweight champion puts her title belts on the line and intends to become the biggest party-pooper in Irish sport since Thierry Henry’s infamous handball in Paris by ruining Taylor’s long-awaited homecoming at the 3Arena.
Carl Frampton said Taylor could have boxed her own mother on May 20 and still sold out the Dublin venue and he’s right but easy touches aren’t Katie’s way. An event of this magnitude deserves a proper headline act and the fans will get value for their hard-earned money once the opening bell clangs because Cameron is a warrior who is coming to win.
When Taylor’s rematch against Amanda Serrano fell through and she got the call to step in, the Northampton native says she didn’t hesitate. It was: ‘Yeah, where-do-I-sign?’
“There was no hesitation,” she says.
“I want to fight the best and I want to end my career in boxing with the chance of saying I boxed the best and the best is Katie Taylor. This is my own legacy and making my career how I want it to go. It was a no-brainer.”
Cameron says she has identified a few chinks in Taylor’s armour. Almost 37 now, Taylor is six years’ the Englishwoman’s senior but Cameron insists she is preparing for the very best of Ireland’s fight queen.
“Me and Jamie are watching Katie at the start of her career and the best of Katie and watching her last fights and we are going in there preparing for the very best of Katie,” she said.
“We’re not looking for any dip or age issue. That’s not really relevant.
“I just love boxing and I love fighting. To beat Katie Taylor pound-for-pound the best… That is enough for me. Whatever happens after that happens but for me it is going to be my own legacy – doing something that no-one has done.”
With a steely glare she says she’s “100 per cent” confident of winning and that she expects that “95 per cent” of the 9,000 at the 3Arena will be cheering on Taylor which is a conservative estimate – it’ll be closer to 95.5 per cent. However, the tall, strong 17-0 puncher has travelled overseas before and won and she points out that the crowd can’t do Taylor’s fighting for her.
“I am going into a hostile situation but it’s only me and Katie in that ring fighting,” she says.
“I will be tunnel vision and doing what I have trained to do.
“At the end of the day, I’m showing I’m a proper fighter because I’m putting everything on the line. I could have had a defence, an easy fight, but Katie deserves this homecoming anyway and the fact it will be such a good fight, I am glad to be a part of it.”
Taylor and Cameron have shared the ring before. Taylor beat her back in their amateur days in an Ireland versus England international and bossed the contest before going on to win gold at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
“Yeah, I can remember it,” says Cameron.
“I was pretty novice in the amateurs. I was about 10 fights as an amateur and it was my second international and I met Katie in a quarter or semi-final
“I was a bit star-struck when I faced her, especially as I was so new to boxing and I had Savannah Marshall and Nicola Adams basically telling me she is God in boxing. It was a privilege so early in my amateur career.”
Over a dozen years on they meet again and this time it’s for all the marbles.
