Trainer Jamie Moore took issue with the level of officiating following Chantelle Cameron’s unanimous points defeat to Katie Taylor, who, in victory, reversed the only blemish on her professional record and became a two-weight undisputed champion in the process.
Taylor (23-1, 6KOs), who suffered defeat to Cameron (18-1, 8KOs) in May of this year, reversed the majority decision loss to one in her favour with a much-improved performance against Cameron. Taylor would claim a majority decision with scores of 98-92 and 94-94 with one even scorecard of 95-95.
Moore took issue with referee Roberto Ramirez, citing that Ramirez did not clamp down on what Moore calls excessive holding by Taylor throughout the contest, as well as refusing to call a knockdown in the opening round in favour of Cameron.
Cameron would land a jab on Taylor, who went down spectacularly, which Ramirez ruled a slip.
Moore would also comment that, in his opinion, everything was set up for Taylor to win and for Cameron to lose and that if the referee was stronger in minimising the holds by Taylor, it would have allowed Cameron to box to her strengths.
“She’s obviously devastated [Cameron], you can imagine,” Moore said of Cameron in a postfight interview with BBC 5 Live Boxing. “She just feels like this whole scenario, everything was set up for her to lose. We were determined to prove everyone wrong, similar to what we did last time. But she got away with holding last time. I’m not saying—first of all, I just wanna say, from what I was actually watching, it was a close fight. It could have gone either way.
“We were denied a knockdown in the first round, which should have been. 100% legitimate knockdown. I begged the referee in the changing room before the fight, please, last time, she got away with holding a lot. My fighter’s best work is up close. Please don’t let her hold the way she did last time this time. And he allowed her to go on worse this time than it was last time.
“So I’m gutted for her because she was so frustrated by the fourth and fifth rounds because she was holding that much. From watching what I watched, if Chantelle was allowed to do the work that she can do on the inside, it would have been a different result. From what I watched, it was a close fight.”
