Chantelle Cameron may be physically ready for Saturday nights rematch with Katie Taylor but her trainer, Jamie Moore, insists the undisputed super lightweight champion is also mentally prepared to produce an even better performance than she did first time around.
Cameron travelled to Dublin and outpointed Taylor over ten rounds in May, destroying the Irish legend’s hopes of becoming a two weight undisputed champion and silencing a passionate crowd. This weekend she returns to the lions den
Cameron was understandably guarded ahead of the first fight. Although she was the champion, Cameron was reduced to being a member of the supporting cast as Taylor made her triumphant return home.
This time around she has carried herself like the champion. Buoyed by the confidence of having taken Taylor’s unbeaten record, she has cut a happy and confident figure in Dublin. Cameron’s trainers, Jamie Moore and Nigel Travis, like to keep things as relaxed as possible during fight week and are expecting Cameron to take her game to an even higher level now she knows exactly what she will be stepping into.
“We try and keep that. That’s a generic thing in terms of how we run things. Nice and relaxed, cool, calm and collected,” Moore said at the final pre-fight press conference.
“Chantelle performed last time under a hell of a lot of pressure. It was a fantastic atmosphere. I expect it to be probably an even better atmosphere this time because I’m anticipating everybody is going to get behind Katie and really try and back her. I’m expecting Katie to perform better. i also expect Chantelle to perform better.”
Although it was undoubtedly the biggest and best win of her career, Cameron has said that she ‘cringed’ at times when rewatching the first fight back. Moore has to look at things with a more analytical eye but he agrees that there are things Cameron can do much better second time around. Going into a rematch having won the first fight so convincingly can be a dangerous task but focusing on the improvements that they wanted to make has prevented the whole team from falling into complacency.
“We sat down about ten weeks ago and watched the fight back together for the first time,” Moore said. “We both agreed by about halfway through that she could perform way better than she has been doing. Where I wanted her to be by the end of camp, she actually surpassed that and she’s much better than i anticipated she could be.
“She seems like she’s really coming into her prime now. I expect it to be a better fight than last time because we expect Katie to come but I expect Chantelle to come out on top.”