Chantelle Cameron vs Katie Taylor: We Had Dreams and Songs to Sing 

By Cormac O Donnell

Background

In what was a momentous week for Irish boxing, the undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor welcomed her super lightweight counterpart, Chantelle Cameron to Dublin, Ireland for an undisputed, undefeated showdown for the ages.

The jubilance of winning an Olympic Gold medal, the selling-out of Madison Square Garden, bringing bigtime boxing back to Ireland, opening up the possibilities for female fighters. Her story is our story; one of personal triumph but also a testament to the indomitable spirit of the Irish people. “This is my nation, this is my country… we love our boxing, our fighting and for a very small nation, we’re very good at it. I’m so happy to bring bigtime boxing back to this nation once again where it actually belongs.”

Anticipating a  highly desired rematch with Amanda Serrano, Taylor had the 3Arena booked for May 20^th. Despite the former falling prey to injury, Katie was intent on realising her dream of fighting before her countrymen and women. Within a matter of days, Matchroom Boxing had secured a worthy opponent with Chantelle Cameron, holder of the WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO and The Ring titles.

Ever the dreamer, daring to be great, Katie took on arguably a more dangerous opponent in Chantelle Cameron.“I don’t see the point of picking easy fights. What has marked my career is that I never, ever pick the easy fights. These kind of fights help the sport grow. These big fights… this is what the sport needs.”

Fight Night

The 3Arena in Dublin reverberated with an overwhelming chorus of cheers, chants, and roars last night as the Irish fans enjoyed a night of big time boxing.

The stadium was awash with a sea of green, white, and orange from both the tricolour bearing audience and stadium spotlights. If a picture painted a thousand words, the noise in the arena wrote a thousand novels. The “Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé” chant rose to previously unheard decibel level. The support for the Irish fighters was deafening with presenter Laura Wood commenting on the DAZN broadcast, “I can barely hear myself.”

Katie Taylor Versus Chantelle Cameron

Chantelle Cameron’s ringwalk anticipated the result of the contest. She came out, cool, calm and collected to the relaxed sounds of Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, unfazed by the 9000 strong Irish fans. The medley blended into The Fugees “Ready or Not” which declared her fighting intentions.

Katie Taylor came out to a Celticized version of Diddy Dirty Money’s “I’m Coming Home” complete with Uileann Pipes sung by Irish artist Sibéal, before merging into Elevation Worship’s “More than Able.” Humbled by the rendition, Katie, with her own unique brand of humility took a moment to thank the singer on way to the ring. Taylor, in a world of her own, surveyed the crowd with a singular focus. The repetition of the lyrics, “You are more than able, ” spoke to every Irish person watching back at her.

The Fight

Chantelle Cameron came out strong against Katie Taylor in the first round, swarming her with punches and not giving her room to breathe.

In Round 2, Taylor was more composed showing some good head movement and letting off her left hook and appeared to win the round.

Cameron was relentless in rounds 3, 4 and 5 starting every attack and finishing them. It was pressure, pressure, pressure as she walked Taylor down.

As the fight progressed, the Irish support buoyed Katy on as the crowd punctuated every shot that she landed. She appeared to win rounds 6, 8, and possibly 10 as she took the fight to Cameron on the inside. Taylor would have benefited from following up these exchanges with much more head movement.

In the final round, the 3Arena turned into a coliseum as both gladiators bit down on their gumshields and threw everything they had left at each other.

By the time the fight ended, there was little confusion as to the victor. Everyone agreed that it was a competitive contest, but Chantelle Cameron emerged as the deserved winner as the judges ruled the contest a decision: 95-95,  96-94 and 96-94 for Cameron.

After the decision was read, Katie Taylor thanked her opponent and declared her intention to activate a rematch clause. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, echoed her wishes commenting, “We will be doing this fight in Dublin in Autumn – I know there will be only one thing on Katie’s mind and that’s the rematch.”

In the event of a rematch, Chantelle Cameron hinted that she would like to move down in weight to challenge for Taylor’s belts. Her coach, Jamie Moore commented at the press conference that “she’s done everything that was asked of her and we think the terms deserve to be in Chantelle’s favour now.”

Aftermath

Taylor versus Cameron in Dublin, Ireland brought out the best in boxing. Fighters willing to compete with each other, high drama, a correct decision, a venue full of singing fans and a rematch to look forward to.

Chantelle Cameron deserves her flowers – a garden full of them. She came into the fight with the odds stacked against her; a previous defeat in the amateurs to Taylor, fighting in enemy territory before a hostile crowd and playing the B-side to Ireland’s queen. “Everything was against me, everything was in favour of Katie – but I showed what I’m about.”

Katie Taylor didn’t receive the result she wanted –  but the week was a celebration of many dreams turned into reality.

“If you had asked me at the start of my professional career what I would like to have achieved, the list would look something like becoming undisputed champion, raising the profile of female boxing, breaking the pay ceiling for female fighters and fighting here in Ireland where boxing belongs. This is definitely the stuff of dreams.”