Ringside Report Takes a Closer Look at World Champion Chantelle Cameron

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

There is of course the danger that the more you praise something the more it is likely to become a cliché. And so, for some it is with women’s boxing which is undergoing quite the rise at the minute.

One British boxer for whom there are often insufficient superlatives to get through the description of her is Chantelle Cameron, 14-0, 8 KO’s. With 14 straight wins from 14 professional contests, she is beginning to look like the poster girl rival to Katie Taylor. It is a match to decide who is the real poster girl that we would all love to see…

Unlike Taylor she may not have an Olympic pedigree to flaunt in publicity but she was a decorated amateur for England with a couple of European championship medals to her name – silver in Keszthely, Hungary in 2010 and bronze in Katowice, Poland in 2011.

In the professional game she is a two-weight world champion having held the WBC light welterweight and the IBO lightweight championship. Straddling the two weight seems quite comfortable for her as the Ring Magazine have her as the 3rd best lightweight and is ranked by most as the world’s best light welter.

Cameron became hooked on combat sports thanks to her love of films whilst growing up in the English town of Northampton. At the tender age of 10, she started kickboxing and by 16 was into Muay Thai. The switch for the undefeated kickboxer and Muay Thai fighter came when she was 18 and the same grit and determination which she had engendered during her initial combat career followed her into the square ring.

Two English championships followed and her rise in the ranks internationally saw her in the AIBA world championships in 2010 but it ended with a defeat at the quarter finals. European glory was just round the corner but in 2011 she came up against a certain Ms. Taylor in the semi-finals who halted her progress!

Her pro debut came on the 26th of May 2017 against Karina Kopinska in Cardiff. She won that on points – a complete shut out – and so the journey began. Competing at super featherweight, she was soon growing into the role as she took the IBO intercontinental title at super featherweight in Edinburgh against Edith Ramos by 3rd round stoppage on the 11th of November 2017.
On December the 2nd, at lightweight she was in against Viviane Obenauf in Leicester. It was her 5th professional contest for her 1st world title – that IBO belt. Obenauf had enough by the 6th round and retired with Cameron taking her 1st world crown.

A defense in Glasgow against Myriam Dellal followed on the 3rd of March 2018 as she shut Dellal out and won on all 3 scorecards – 100-90! He second defense came at the iconic York Hall where the WBC also put on the line their silver title at lightweight. Her opponent that night, Jessica Gonzalez, hit the canvas in the 1st – ruled a slip – got a cut head in the 2nd – accidental clash of heads – and then was deducted a point for hitting Cameron on the back of a head during a clinch. It may have looked like a night in which Gonzalez could not catch a break but, she also was unable to catch a round as Cameron once more got a shut out on all three judge’s cards.

Having spent her entire professional career with Shane McGuigan and Cyclone Promotions, on the 1st of February 2019, she left them. It was a bitter split. Alongside what clearly had gone wrong with Cyclone, the McGuigan’s and Carl Frampton, the dispute had some tough words to be said. In a statement on Twitter she said, “…they know the distress they have caused me and how isolated they made me feel, humiliated and just deflated, they had no time for a female boxer. My last fight camp was four weeks and I’m sick of the circumstances of chasing money and it’s been seen in my most recent performance (Jessica Gonzalez).”

MTK and Jamie Moore stepped up and took her on.

She got back in the ring, won a couple of fights before she relinquished the IBO belt. None of the two contests she had were title fights so the belt was never in jeopardy, but she was ready to step up, thank the IBO and allow other boxers the chance to fight for the IBO crown.

She was next in against Anisha Basheel in a WBC lightweight eliminator – would she continue to dominate? Cameron once more showed her abilities in, yet another shut out. She retained her WBC silver title and became Katie Taylor’s mandatory as Taylor was the WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO and Ring magazine unified champion.

Our mouths watered at the prospect.

Cameron was not going to wait about for her chance. Perhaps seeing what happens to people who are mandatories – Dillian Whyte and the WBC anyone – she decided to keep going. Up to light welterweight she went and faced a former three weight world champion in Anahi Ester Sanchez. On the 9th of November 2019, back at York Hall she won the fight with an almost complete shut out, for the right to face WBA and WBC champion Jessica McCaskill.

Cameron was being noticed and one guy who was paying attention was Eddie Hearn. He signed her up!
The WBC title was to be hers as McCaskill relinquished the belt and Adriana Araujo was put in against Cameron for the WBC light welterweight title. In Milton Keynes, a familiar shut out ensued as Aruajo, even 5lbs over the limit could not compete with Cameron.

Her first defense of that coveted green and gold belt came on the 29th of May 2021 in Nevada – her first professional foray abroad – and she stopped her opponent, former world champion, Melissa Hernandez in the 5th round, after putting to the canvas in the 4th.

At the tail end of this month, in the 02 Arena, London, against Mary McGee there is a unification title fight for her with the IBF title round McGee’s waist and Cameron brining the WBC bauble to the table. What is also at stake is the very first Ring magazine female lightweight championship. Shall she win? Ask Eddie Hearn…

In an online interview, in his typically bombastic style he commented, “I would like Chantelle Cameron to have two more fights this year, and I would like to see her undisputed by the end of the year. … because I think she can do it quite quickly…” Of her performance against Hernandez, he said, “I thought Chantelle Cameron was fantastic. Melissa Hernandez, a former two-time world champion, the mandatory challenger, and she just got absolutely steamrolled by Chantelle, but she deserved to go on in the fight.”

Matchroom have come good with a four boxer tournament which sees all four world champions in a semi final and a final to follow. Cameron may not quite achieve being the undisputed by the end of 2021, but there is little doubt that by the middle of 2022, she may be in the right place, the right shape and have the opportunity to be the unified champion in against another unified champion in the shape of one Katie Taylor. That would be a dream but the road to such riches can be filled with many obstacles, not least that boxers can plan and scheme but often the boxing gods have an Oleksandr Usyk or two waiting in the wings!

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