IF you ever hear the chant: โThereโs only one Chantelle Cameron,โ donโt believe it. There are several. Thereโs the Chantelle Cameron whoโs a glamorous presence at charity functions, thereโs the one who puts on overalls and helps her father do jobs around the house and then thereโs the Chantelle Cameron readers of Boxing News are familiar with.
The one who fights.
Sheโs trained by Jamie Moore and he has noticed thereโs more than one version of the 29-year-old from Northampton. โChantelle is so nice,โ said the former British, Commonwealth and European super-welterweight champion, โbut when she gets in the ring, sheโs an animal.โ
At Mooreโs gym in Greater Manchester, they know Cameron as โIl Capoโ โ or โThe Boss.โ โJamieโs wife Colleen came up with the name,โ said Cameron. โI didnโt want to be โWham Bam Chanโ anymore.
โJamie texted me โIl Capo,โ I Googled it and I loved it. Itโs because of the way I fight. Iโm in charge of the ring.โ
Cameron laughed at the suggestion itโs because sheโs the boss of a gym that includes Carl Frampton, Rocky Fielding and Martin Murray. Five days a week, Cameron heads there from the flat in Irlam she shares with unbeaten middleweight Savannah Marshall, a friend since they were amateurs, and mention of the gym puts a smile on her face. โAs soon as I walked in the gym I felt right at home,โ she said. โJamie is very positive and itโs fun. Itโs always a good laugh.โ
The Cameron-Moore partnership will be put to the test on Sunday (October 4). Cameron meets Brazilโs 2012 and 2016 Olympian Adriana Araujo (6-0) for the WBC super-lightweight championship vacated by Jessica McCaskill. The fight Cameron wants, and a sizeable number of the fight public wants to see, is with Katie Taylor, who held off a determined Delfine Persoon in their rematch in August to keep her lightweight belts. Cameron is at No 1 in the WBC rankings at 135lbs โ and thereโs history between her and Taylor. The Irishwoman was a points winner when they met in the semi-finals of the Womenโs EU Championship in Poland in 2011.
โKatie is the biggest name in womenโs boxing, so thatโs the fight I want,โ said Cameron. โItโs not just a big fight for womenโs boxing –ย itโs a big fight for boxing.
โThereโs so much interest in the fight it could even be pay-per-view.โ
The whisper is, Taylorโs camp have been annoyed that Cameron often mentions her in interviews. The reality is, Cameron is always asked about Taylor by reporters and, as is to be expected, Chantelle backs herself to beat her. โDelfine showed Katieโs weaknesses,โ she said. โYou can see that if you put the pressure on, she will crumble. Katieโs strengths are her speed and boxing, but as soon as you take her out of her comfort zone, she struggles.โ
Cameron admits that without Taylor and Nicola Adams, she wouldnโt be fighting for world honours live on Sky Sports this weekend. โBecoming a world champion at professional boxing wasnโt possible when I started going to the gym,โ she said. โI wanted to a be a kickboxing world champion and then when I started boxing, the target was the Olympics. Now the target is to unify the world titles. Katie and Nicola Adams have done a lot for womenโs boxing. They have helped make all this possible.โ
Cameron praised new promoter Eddie Hearn for his support of womenโs boxing โ and she has done her bit herself. She launched her professional career in 2017 with the McGuigans and their deal with Channel Five gave Cameron the chance to fight in front of a huge audience โ and shock her neighbours. She grew up on the Standens Barn estate in Northamptonโs tough Eastern District and said: โPeople started to recognise me when I was out shopping – and they all seemed to say the same thing.
โThey all said how aggressive I am!
โPeople around the estate knew I was a boxer, but I think they expected me to be a tippy, tappy girl boxer.
โBut when they saw me fight, they saw that Iโm ferocious and I love to fight.โ
Cameron has always loved fighting. Growing up, she wanted to fight vampires. Sarah Michelle Gellar starred in cult TV show โBuffy The Vampire Slayerโ as the high-school heroine who punched and kicked vampires into oblivion and Cameron said: โI was obsessed with that show when I was 10 years old.
โBut there werenโt any vampires in Northampton, so I had to beat up the boys on my street instead.
โThe girls at school were into Barbie and I was into Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.
โI went to the kickboxing gym and went in there swinging and making the boys cry. I didnโt know what I was doing โ but I loved it. The coaches were saying: โWho is this?โ And the boys stopped going because I was making them cry.โ
Cameron says she had โhundredsโ of kickboxing fights โ including 11 full contact โ and at 16, she claimed world honours in Muay Thai in Florida by winning three fights in as many days. To improve her hands, Cameron went to a local amateur boxing gym โ and stayed. โMy coach put me in for a bout, I won it and stuck with it,โ she said. โKickboxing was my passion, but my dad had to pay for everything when I was a kickboxer. When I started boxing, they paid me.โ
Cameron went on to have โover 100โ amateur bouts and spent eight years with the Great Britain squad in Sheffield. The highlight was probably winning the Olympic Test event in Rio in December, 2015. She beat Estelle Mosselly in the final, but while the Frenchwoman went on to win Olympic gold, Cameron didnโt even qualify. โThe bell in the other ring went off, my opponent stopped fighting, but I carried on and they took a point off me and I lost a split,โ remembered Cameron of her defeat to Finlandโs Mira Potkonen in the Womenโs World Championship in Kazakhstan in May, 2016. โBy the end of my amateur career, I was sick of it.โ
So sick of boxing did Cameron become, she thought of quitting. โI had a leg injury and had three months off training,โ she said. โThat gave me a lot of time to think.โ
Cameron came to the conclusion that fighting is what she does best. โI decided I want to do as well as I can out of boxing so I can open a gym and buy properties,โย she said, โand never have to work a day in my life!
โIโve tried working and it wasnโt for me!
โI got sacked by Tescoโs because I never turned up and when I tried labouring for my dad I kept telling him: โIโve got to save my energy for the gym so Iโm off for a nap.โ
โI got a Saturday job in [department store] Peacocks as well, but that didnโt last long either. I would do a six-hour shift and be shattered. That tired me out more than going to the gym.โ
Cameron explained why fighting has been her life. โIt comes naturally to me,โ she said. โIโve got a strong mindset. I go into every fight thinking: โWhatever you throw at me, I will come out on top. Whatever youโve got, Iโve got more.โโ
Thatโs been the case in her first 12 fights and her last opponent, Anahi Ester Sanchez, had won world honours at 135lbs and 140lbs.
The Argentine couldnโt stay with Cameron and after 10 rounds, two judges had her a shut-out winner. โShe was a former world champion,โ said Cameron of Sanchez, โand knew what she was doing.
โShe was slick, had good movement and was catching me. I know I can take a good shot โ and give one. She took some punishment herself.โ
Notably in the ninth when Cameron punched Sanchez to her knees. That result made Cameron the mandatory challenger for the WBC belt at 140lbs and she is similarly placed at 135lbs after a dominant performance against Anisha Basheel in Brentwood last July. Basheel had stopped her previous eight opponents โ including Leedsโ Sam Smith for the vacant Commonwealth title โ but struggled to lay a glove on Cameron. โPeople know me for taking a punch to land one,โ she said, โbut I had never had that sort of opponent before. I knew she could punch โ and I showed I can box.
โI can go on the back foot and make them miss.โ
Perhaps Cameronโs greatest strength is her workrate. Moore and former amateur coach John Daly have been left open mouthed by her performances in the gym and none of her 12 opponents has come close to matching Cameronโs appetite for fighting. Chantelle says she โlovesโ what she does, but is looking forward to a life without boxing.
โI want to do what I want to do in the next two years,โ she said, โand then get out.
โI love doing it, but I have been fighting since I was 10 and by the time I want out, I will have been fighting for 20 years.
โI have missed out on so much.
โBecause of one of my fights, I missed my best friendโs hen do. We grew up together and then I couldnโt make it.
โAfter a while, friends stop inviting you out because they know you are going to say: โNoโ and relationships are a distraction.
โThey can go a bit pear shaped when youโre in a training camp.
โYou end up having arguments over whether you should go to parties or meet with friends and itโs better for me to be on my own.
โIโve found that out the hard way. I was in a relationship when I was going for the Olympics, but it put a lot of strain on us and we ended up splitting.
โThat made me decide to forget about relationships until Iโve finished boxing.
โI want to get out of boxing at the top. I donโt want to hang around for too long and end up fighting for money. I have a good team around me and they will tell me when the time is right for me to get out.โ