Chantelle Cameron: ‘You can see that if you put the pressure on, Katie Taylor will crumble’

Chantelle Cameron

IF you ever hear the chant: โ€œThereโ€™s only one Chantelle Cameron,โ€ donโ€™t believe it. There are several. Thereโ€™s the Chantelle Cameron whoโ€™s a glamorous presence at charity functions, thereโ€™s the one who puts on overalls and helps her father do jobs around the house and then thereโ€™s the Chantelle Cameron readers of Boxing News are familiar with.

The one who fights.

Sheโ€™s trained by Jamie Moore and he has noticed thereโ€™s more than one version of the 29-year-old from Northampton. โ€œChantelle is so nice,โ€ said the former British, Commonwealth and European super-welterweight champion, โ€œbut when she gets in the ring, sheโ€™s an animal.โ€

At Mooreโ€™s gym in Greater Manchester, they know Cameron as โ€˜Il Capoโ€™ โ€“ or โ€˜The Boss.โ€™ โ€œJamieโ€™s wife Colleen came up with the name,โ€ said Cameron. โ€œI didnโ€™t want to be โ€˜Wham Bam Chanโ€™ anymore.

โ€œJamie texted me โ€˜Il Capo,โ€™ I Googled it and I loved it. Itโ€™s because of the way I fight. Iโ€™m in charge of the ring.โ€

Cameron laughed at the suggestion itโ€™s because sheโ€™s 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. โ€œAs soon as I walked in the gym I felt right at home,โ€ she said. โ€œJamie is very positive and itโ€™s fun. Itโ€™s always a good laugh.โ€

The Cameron-Moore partnership will be put to the test on Sunday (October 4). Cameron meets Brazilโ€™s 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 thereโ€™s history between her and Taylor. The Irishwoman was a points winner when they met in the semi-finals of the Womenโ€™s EU Championship in Poland in 2011.

โ€œKatie is the biggest name in womenโ€™s boxing, so thatโ€™s the fight I want,โ€ said Cameron. โ€œItโ€™s not just a big fight for womenโ€™s boxing –ย  itโ€™s a big fight for boxing.

โ€œThereโ€™s so much interest in the fight it could even be pay-per-view.โ€

The whisper is, Taylorโ€™s 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. โ€œDelfine showed Katieโ€™s weaknesses,โ€ she said. โ€œYou can see that if you put the pressure on, she will crumble. Katieโ€™s 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 wouldnโ€™t be fighting for world honours live on Sky Sports this weekend. โ€œBecoming a world champion at professional boxing wasnโ€™t possible when I started going to the gym,โ€ she said. โ€œI 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 womenโ€™s boxing. They have helped make all this possible.โ€

chantelle cameron

Cameron praised new promoter Eddie Hearn for his support of womenโ€™s 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 Northamptonโ€™s tough Eastern District and said: โ€œPeople started to recognise me when I was out shopping – and they all seemed to say the same thing.

โ€œThey all said how aggressive I am!

โ€œPeople around the estate knew I was a boxer, but I think they expected me to be a tippy, tappy girl boxer.

โ€œBut when they saw me fight, they saw that Iโ€™m 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 โ€˜Buffy The Vampire Slayerโ€™ as the high-school heroine who punched and kicked vampires into oblivion and Cameron said: โ€œI was obsessed with that show when I was 10 years old.

โ€œBut there werenโ€™t any vampires in Northampton, so I had to beat up the boys on my street instead.

โ€œThe girls at school were into Barbie and I was into Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

โ€œI went to the kickboxing gym and went in there swinging and making the boys cry. I didnโ€™t know what I was doing โ€“ but I loved it. The coaches were saying: โ€˜Who is this?โ€™ And the boys stopped going because I was making them cry.โ€

Cameron says she had โ€œhundredsโ€ 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. โ€œMy coach put me in for a bout, I won it and stuck with it,โ€ she said. โ€œKickboxing 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 โ€œover 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 didnโ€™t even qualify. โ€œThe 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 Finlandโ€™s Mira Potkonen in the Womenโ€™s World Championship in Kazakhstan in May, 2016. โ€œBy the end of my amateur career, I was sick of it.โ€

So sick of boxing did Cameron become, she thought of quitting. โ€œI had a leg injury and had three months off training,โ€ she said. โ€œThat gave me a lot of time to think.โ€

Cameron came to the conclusion that fighting is what she does best. โ€œI decided I want to do as well as I can out of boxing so I can open a gym and buy properties,โ€ย  she said, โ€œand never have to work a day in my life!

โ€œIโ€™ve tried working and it wasnโ€™t for me!

โ€œI got sacked by Tescoโ€™s because I never turned up and when I tried labouring for my dad I kept telling him: โ€˜Iโ€™ve got to save my energy for the gym so Iโ€™m off for a nap.โ€™

โ€œI got a Saturday job in [department store] Peacocks as well, but that didnโ€™t 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. โ€œIt comes naturally to me,โ€ she said. โ€œIโ€™ve got a strong mindset. I go into every fight thinking: โ€˜Whatever you throw at me, I will come out on top. Whatever youโ€™ve got, Iโ€™ve got more.โ€™โ€

Thatโ€™s 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 couldnโ€™t stay with Cameron and after 10 rounds, two judges had her a shut-out winner. โ€œShe was a former world champion,โ€ said Cameron of Sanchez, โ€œand knew what she was doing.

chantelle cameron
Scott Rawsthorne/MTK Global

โ€œShe 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. โ€œPeople know me for taking a punch to land one,โ€ she said, โ€œbut I had never had that sort of opponent before. I knew she could punch โ€“ and I showed I can box.

โ€œI can go on the back foot and make them miss.โ€

Perhaps Cameronโ€™s 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 Cameronโ€™s appetite for fighting. Chantelle says she โ€œlovesโ€ what she does, but is looking forward to a life without boxing.

โ€œI want to do what I want to do in the next two years,โ€ she said, โ€œand then get out.

โ€œI 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.

โ€œI have missed out on so much.

โ€œBecause of one of my fights, I missed my best friendโ€™s hen do. We grew up together and then I couldnโ€™t make it.

โ€œAfter a while, friends stop inviting you out because they know you are going to say: โ€˜Noโ€™ and relationships are a distraction.

โ€œThey can go a bit pear shaped when youโ€™re in a training camp.

โ€œYou end up having arguments over whether you should go to parties or meet with friends and itโ€™s better for me to be on my own.

โ€œIโ€™ve 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.

โ€œThat made me decide to forget about relationships until Iโ€™ve finished boxing.

โ€œI want to get out of boxing at the top. I donโ€™t 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€

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