History is on Taylor’s side here.
Katie Taylor will fight Chantelle Cameron this Saturday just five months after suffering her first professional defeat against the English woman, but the short turnaround could be in her favour.
Last time around Cameron shocked everyone by putting on a stellar performance, and beating the home fighter at her own homecoming fight, spoiling the party for everybody in the Dublin.
The undisputed champion was vicious, relentless, and borderline brutal in the way that she hunted down Taylor, made the ring seem as small as possible, and felt comfortable taking one punch to land two.
There has been a bit of an exaggeration to the extent that she won the first fight however, for although there is no doubt that Cameron was victorious, and won more rounds, she only won them marginally.
This is partly to do with the fact that rounds in women’s boxing are only two minutes, thus making it much harder to score, but the Bray native had a lot of success in there too, because her opponent’s come-forward style meant that she never had to go looking for her, and she landed plenty of shots herself.
Taylor is undoubtedly the underdog going into this bout, and apart from the obvious plan to try and box her opponent rather brawl with her, a recent run of events favours the home fighter.
In other rematches, where the second meeting was arranged shortly after the first, the boxer who lost first time around manages to turn the tide in their favour on the second time of asking.
This year alone saw Chris Eubank be knocked out by Liam Smith, only for him to completely dominate the Liverpudlian in the rematch four short months later, something which nobody expected.
Leigh Woods was stopped by the Mexican Lara earlier in the year, but completely outclassed his opponent in the rematch a couple of months after the original defeat, something which Taylor will hope to replicate.
Although last year saw Anthony Joshua lose consecutively to Oleksandr Usyk, the improvement in his performance from the first fight and the second was staggering, as he went from being utterly outmatched, to making it close and competitive.
The British heavyweight had already benefitted from the magic of rematch-rejuvenation when he was stopped by Andy Ruiz, but came back to defeat him in the rematch shortly afterwards.
Even historically, shrt turn arounds in rematches have favoured the person who lost the first, with the most famous being Sugar Ray Leonard’s destruction of Roberto Duran, who held his hands up and said ‘Nomas’ (no more) and quit in the middle of the fight.
Just a few weeks earlier, Duran had put on the performance of his life to beat the seemingly unstoppable American, but the time spent enjoying the victory hampered his preparations and gave him false confidence the second time around.
Now there is absolutely no danger of Cameron eating too much steak and beer in-between the last fight and this one, like Duran claimed that he did, but sometimes you lose that fear that you once had as the underdog, and although fear sounds like a negative thing to carry into the ring, it keeps you sharp.
It’s wisdom in the face of danger, it never lets you switch off for a second, and keeps your focus at 100% throughout the entire fight. This is something Taylor will bring to the table, as she can’t afford even a second of complacency against such. dangerous opponent, but for Cameron to pull it off twice n quick succession is a monumental task.
In saying that, pulling off the impossible more than once is what legendary fighters do, and Cameron aims to be just that.
Related links:
- “Spiteful”; Chantelle Cameron tears into Katie Taylor for her’piss-take’; during last fight
- Amy Broadhurst explains how Katie Taylor can beat ‘tough nut’ Chantelle Cameron
- Katie Taylor posts rare training clip that hints at game plan for Chantelle Cameron rematch
