BOXING
Katie Taylor promises boxing, not knockouts tonight in Dublin
Shrugging off suggestions that either Chantelle Cameron’s weight advantage or biased judges will skew the bout, Katie Taylor promises pugilism in Dublin.
Tonight in 3Arena Dublin, Ireland, Katie Taylor, the undefeated, undisputed, unified lightweight champion of the world will clash with Chantelle Cameron, the undefeated, undisputed, unified light-welterweight champion of the world. One of the two will be walk out of the ring tonight with all of the belts in two weight divisions.
With so much on the line, there has been much speculation over whether the fight was, or ever could be on an even keel. Taylor is stepping up to Cameron’s natural weight after all, conceding an advantage in raw punch power to her opponent.
Taylor is adamant, however, that punch power will not come into the equation, saying, “We’ve had great sparring with bigger girls, we’ve been doing 15 rounds so I don’t really care what Chantelle Cameron weighs. It’s not a weight contest, it’s a boxing contest. It’s called boxing, it’s not called knockouts, we’re going to box.”
As a pugilist, Taylor has few rivals in the world. She has had close calls with Delfine Persoon, Amanda Serrano, and Natasha Jonas, all women who are known for their stick-and-move strategy. But when it comes to combinations, punches-in-bunches, and full frontal assault, Katie Taylor is just about unrivalled.
Chantelle Cameron, on the other hand, has won her titles the hard way. Where Taylor might be accustomed to wide points victories, Cameron has been in more than her fair share of tight scrapes. When asked about facing Taylor in Dublin, Cameron admitted that she feared a scoring bias for the Irish champion.
Katie Taylor shrugged those concerns off as well, saying, “What can I say about that? Who cares really? Every fight was well won, well deserved so it’s nonsense.”
Much has been made of this being Taylor’s first fight in her home country, but she dismisses the significance of that as well. Her head trainer, Ross Enamait said, “I don’t really care where we fight, we just want to show up and put on a great performance and it doesn’t matter if it’s in Dublin or the middle of the desert.”
We won’t have long to wait to see how it pans out, with the undercard action getting started around 2 p.m. ET and the main event scheduled to ringwalk at 5:31 p.m. ET.