The golden age of women’s boxing has had some easily identifiable stars.
Amanda Serrano.
Claressa Shields.
Katie Taylor.
The latter ran into a disruptor building a star of her own.
In consecutive fights, undisputed junior welterweight world champion Chantelle Cameron (18-0, 8 KO) of the United Kingdom pulled off a hell of a feat. In November 2022, she defended her titles successfully by defeating then-undisputed welterweight champion Jessica McCaskill. McCaskill moved down the scale to try her luck and came up short.
In May of this year, she won another battle of undisputed champions with a win over Ireland’s Taylor (22-1, 6 KO). Taylor came into the fight as basically 1A to Shields’ 1B in the pound-for-pound race. Aside from the feat of handing Taylor her first defeat, Cameron did it on the road in Dublin in a well-built homecoming event. Taylor, a former Olympian, and the clear home team favorite, did enough to keep it close but Cameron was too good for the judges to take it from her.
To put into perspective how impressive these back-to-back wins have been, imagine the equivalent in boxing. It’s not exactly apples to apples, but looking at the same weight classes it would be like if Teofimo Lopez defended against Terence Crawford and then Devin Haney and then was fighting Haney again in the California Bay Area.
This Saturday (DAZN, 2 PM EST), Cameron is traveling back into the lion’s den. As good as she had to be the first time, this is boxing. She probably has to be better in the return. It would be no surprise if Taylor was better. Already 37, Taylor’s money making options wouldn’t evaporate with another loss.
She’ll still be the lightweight champion.
Everyone who saw Taylor’s fight with Amanda Serrano would still want to see a sequel.
But the test of many a great fighter has been in rematches. Can they find a way to reverse course and move up to another level in esteem? The crowd will certainly be pulling for it. If Taylor is going to summon all of what remains of her prime form, this would be the night.
The fact that the first fight happened at all was a credit to Taylor. She was set for a rematch with Serrano that was scheduled and then fell through. Taylor could have waited, found something safer, and cashed in at home with the biggest women’s rematch of all time.
She did what so many say they want fighters to do, especially in this low activity era.
Taylor could also have opted against this rematch, returning to lightweight and doing her business there.
Instead she’s doing exactly what so many say they want fighters to do.
Taylor isn’t alone. It’s what has made this a golden era for women’s boxing. The talent pools can be thinner in the women’s game but the best of respective weight classes have been making the fights with outstanding regularity. Unification has been everywhere and the reward has been a flow of fights that have made the sport better. We may get Seneisa Estrada-Yokasta Valle sooner than later. An undisputed flyweight clash is coming between Marlen Esparza and Gabriela Fundora.
Cameron, 32, winning again would cap off a hat trick for the ages and stand apart from a lot of recent women’s accomplishments. The who and the where matter.
It’s the best kind of rematch drama this weekend.
Cliff’s Notes…
It’s not the best card of the week…Saturday will mark the final voyage for Showtime pay-per-view and it’s a fan-friendly outing…David Benavidez-Demetrius Andrade has potential to be a classic, a rout, or a stinker and not in the normal sense that all fights do. It’s realistic to see it going any of those ways…Like most, this corner expects Subriel Matias-Shohjahon Ergashev to steal the show…Despite all the chatter about undisputed, it’s worth noting how illusory and silly the status can be. Terence Crawford, Jermell Charlo, Josh Taylor all gave up belts after reaching undisputed status. Taylor ultimately lost to Lopez. Crawford and Charlo haven’t lost in their weight classes. Until they do, or vacate, the top dogs from junior welterweight to junior middleweight are easy to identify. Some other guys have belts but they’re THE world champions and there isn’t any real dispute about it…Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com