Katie Taylor’s first professional fight in Ireland proved to be her first professional defeat, as the undisputed lightweight champion fell short in her attempt to wrest the 140-pound title from England’s Chantelle Cameron.
Cameron (18-0, 8 KOs) set a fast pace from first bell to last, working behind a stiff jab and straight right hand and digging repeatedly to Taylor’s body as the two women worked in close. As Cameron stalked forward in the opening round, Taylor sought to retreat and draw her onto counters, a strategy that had some success in the first couple of rounds but began to fall apart from round 3 onward as Taylor struggled to find the right distance in which to operate and proved unable to match Cameron’s relentless work rate.
Although the hometown crowd at Dublin’s 3Arena roared its approval with every punch that Taylor (22-1, 6 KOs) landed, it was clear by the fourth to even the most partisan observer that Taylor was struggling with the quantity and heft of Cameron’s punches, an impression that was only magnified by the Irishwoman’s braided hair becoming loose in the fourth and fifth.
Taylor landed some good flurries in a close sixth, but in the seventh Cameron once again found another gear and resumed her grinding, debilitating offense. The final few rounds did, however, see Taylor’s best work, as she was able to find the range she wanted and unleash a series of combinations to Cameron’s head, even as Cameron continued to score with body punches and increasingly effective uppercuts. Taylor took the tenth and final frame, now throwing fast combinations between Cameron’s longer and heavier punches, but it was too little, too late. Although judge Raul Caiz Jr saw the fight as a draw, both Craig Metcalfe and Patrick Morley scored it 96-94 for Cameron, who remains the undisputed super lightweight champion.
Prior to the fight, Cameron had expressed her concerns at being able to receive fair scoring in Taylor’s hometown, and afterward she admitted that she was “petrified,” especially after hearing Caiz’s score.
“I thought, ‘I’m not going to get this decision.’ It was a close fight; Katie’s a great fighter, pound for pound best in the boxing business, but I turned up for the occasion,” she said. Asked where she believes she now stands in the boxing pantheon, Cameron noted that in successive fights she had defended her belts against welterweight champ Jessica McCaskill and now Taylor, but said she was “sick of keeping my own belts, I want to go win some more belts.”
First, however, comes the rematch with Taylor, which promoter Eddie Hearn said would be in the fall, again in Dublin.
Naturally disappointed, Taylor acknowledged that the night “was not how I wanted my homecoming to go. But congratulations to Chantelle, it was a fantastic performance. Thank you for giving me a chance to fight for your belts, and I look forward to the rematch.”
