'You wouldn't want to see Katie Taylor beat three times' - Cameron ...
It is easy to buy into the fairytale. A fit and vindicative Katie Taylor bounces back to avenge May’s devastating defeat. Already there has been talk of a trilogy in Croke Park. Chantelle Cameron is determined to deny it.
“I am not thinking about losing,” she said at Thursday’s press conference, understandably. She retained her WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO light-welterweight titles in May with that majority decision win.
“All I think about is winning. In my head, it is up to the fighter, but you wouldn’t want to see a trilogy. You wouldn’t want to see Katie Taylor beat three times.”
Content to run it back. Eager to back it up.
“I literally feel zero pressure. I mean, it is all on Katie. I am back in Dublin, in Katie’s country, and as much as I’m defending my belts, for me it is just another fight and one I have already won after the last time and I think I’ll win more convincingly this time.”
The 32-year-old is back on Irish soil for another sellout at the 3Arena. After the last contest, her trainer Jamie Moore had called for the rematch to be on ‘Chantelle’s terms’. There will be some changes this time around. As the challenger, Taylor will walk out first, but the Northampton boxer won’t be replicating Taylor’s prolonged ring walk this Saturday: “Mike Tyson mood,” said Moore. “Straight in there.” Beyond that, they are still the away corner. Cameron likes it here and spent a few weeks post-fight holidaying along The Wild Atlantic Way, but her trainer is still keen to stress their case that the bout should have been held elsewhere.
“We are back in Dublin, so that in itself speaks a lot in terms of Eddie’s priority seemed like from the beginning was to get Katie the rematch in her hometown probably to try and give her more of an advantage but like Chantelle says, there are flip sides to everything.
“Having home advantage and having that support is a positive, but the pressure is a negative. It just all depends. But I just think that going from where we were the last time coming into this fight, regardless of what is happening outside our camp, it is really irrelevant.
“We wanted it at home, we wanted it at a neutral ground. The O2. Now this was early, early on. Abu Dhabi, somewhere where if it wasn’t going to be at home it was at least going to be neutral. We sort of understood early doors that they were pretty intent on coming back to Dublin. So, we just said, ‘Right listen it is what it is, we’ve done it before so let’s just do it.’”
Cameron interjected to also clarify the seven-figure gate is not a silver lining from her perspective: “The money was contracted. The money was the same, but the location wasn’t. That’s why I kind of wanted the location to go neutral. But I’m here.”
And embracing every minute of it. Cameron never considered turning pro as an amateur. She had mixed between kickboxing and Muay Thai before winning a few medals at the EU Championships. Her career path was pointed towards PE teaching until Taylor emerged and blazed a trail.
That is why the champion continues to laud the Irish icon. Across the week she remains meticulously respectful and dismisses questions about whether she could be the boxer to end Taylor’s career: “I think that is a bit disrespectful to Katie Taylor.”
Saturday is strictly business.
“I think she is a great fighter, a great champion, if I was in her shoes, I would have wanted the rematch straight away, so I think she is a true champion. She is seeking her revenge but against the wrong opponent. The wrong woman.”
