Chantelle Cameron: Triumph over Katie Taylor crowning moment for snubbed, undisputed champion

Chantelle Cameron announced herself on the world stage with her triumph over Katie Taylor in a near punch-perfect performance in Dublin.

The Northampton history-maker is a woman of few words, but has done all her talking in the ring.

Cameron has quietly built herself into a formidable champion, but her performance against Taylor was a loud testament to her undeniable pedigree.

The 32-year-old is unbeaten in 18 fights as a pro, outclassed arguably the greatest female fighter of all time in her backyard and has beaten two reigning undisputed champions back-to-back.

Cameron might have been unsure when asked if she was the pound-for-pound best after her win, but her promoter Eddie Hearn and coach Jamie Moore weren't so modest.

"If Katie Taylor was ranked number one pound-for-pound, which I believe she was, if somebody's just beaten her then surely that makes her the best pound-for-pound," Moore said.

"Jessica McCaskill was undisputed at 147lb; she came down to challenge Chantelle for undisputed (at light-welterweight). Katie came up; she's undisputed lightweight," Hearn added.

"She's beat two reigning undisputed champions back-to-back. Incredible run."

Cameron shines under the spotlight

Cameron had never featured on such a big stage as the one she occupied this week.

It probably suited the defending champion to stand to one side of the spotlight fixed on Taylor, but the lack of respect fuelled England's first undisputed champion.

Taylor was given all the trappings of a champion despite being the challenger. She walked second to the ring in a rarely seen break in boxing tradition and enjoyed a lengthy entrance compared to Cameron.

But the Englishwoman wore an unmoved expression as she made her way to the ring alone, shadow boxing and even laughing with her coaches Moore and Nigel Travis as they waited for Taylor.

For a fighter who has admitted to confidence issues in the past, Cameron showed nerves of steel in the most hostile of environments in Dublin.

Moore and Travis have repeatedly insisted an iron lady lies within Cameron and now the world has witnessed just what their fighter is made of.

"Katie's a great fighter, a great ambassador for the sport and I always knew it would be a tough night. Come to Dublin - her homecoming, everything was against me," she said.

"Everything was in her favour but I showed what I'm about."

Hearn said the rematch was set to take place in Dublin, but Moore suggested Cameron deserves her own homecoming.

She is Northampton's first boxing world champion, but has only once fought close to home turf when she won her first world title in 2020 in Milton Keynes.

Sipping on a beer between answers in a short and sweet post-fight news conference, Cameron was reluctant to fully commit to a second fight, but, with Taylor saying she would trigger a rematch clause, it seems unlikely the champion will be given a choice.

"I don't even know what's next," she said. "I believe I achieved one mountain and I've just climbed another mountain."

• 5 Live Boxing: Taylor v Cameron - The debrief

Is Taylor on the decline?

While Cameron returns home with her perfect record intact, Taylor is left pondering what went wrong in what was meant to be her triumphant return home.

Taylor has produced miracle after miracle for Irish boxing as one of their greatest sportspersons, but perhaps the move up in weight to face an elite, younger champion was a step too far for the 36-year-old.

UFC star Conor McGregor watched from ringside and thinks the occasion might have got to the seasoned pro.

McGregor was ringside supporting Taylor in Dublin

"Katie went up a weight at the drop of a hat to make this event happen. She didn't have time to build up to the weight. She took a chance," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"We had it a draw there. The nerves at the start of the fight set her back. She wasn't Katie at the start.

"She was Katie from midway on when she started to come on into her own."

Taylor's clean-cut image is also a guarded one. The Bray native rarely shows too much of herself, but at the fight week in Dublin she did give off the aura of someone excited to be back among her people.

She has spent seven years fighting to bring big-time boxing to Ireland and, after finally succeeding in that endeavour, many felt like Saturday evening would have been a fitting final chapter for Taylor.

But losing was not in the script, and it is unthinkable Taylor would retire off the back of a loss, even if signs of decline have finally started to creep into her game.

"I do think Katie Taylor is a bit on the decline," Taylor's WBO mandatory challenger Mikaela Mayer said.

"It's not a shot at her because she's 36 and has taken on every challenge possible.

"But if you look back a couple of years, she was so quick and so explosive throughout a 10-round fight and it looks like she doesn't have that in her now.

"She needs to train smarter not harder for the rematch."