Liam Cameron had offered a resounding “yes” when asked if he was interested in a fight with Ben Whittaker, and he had been assured that he had the fight with the 2020 Olympic silver medalist and just needed to wait for the official announcement. Still, Cameron couldn’t bring himself to believe it was actually going to happen.
The 33-year-old light heavyweight was at home, struggling to get a picture on his television, when he got confirmation from the best possible source.
Cameron (23-6, 10 KOs) will indeed fight Whittaker (8-0, 5 KOs) on the undercard of the undisputed light heavyweight title fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 12.
“I decided to go on my phone and watch YouTube,” Cameron told BoxingScene. “I scrolled on Instagram and I’ve seen Turki [Alalshikh] post it. I zoomed in, and there was my face on it. I was like, ‘Wow. Yes.’ I was shaking with excitement, and my phone just blew up.
“It’s too good to be true, isn’t it, really? A monster card. Beterbiev is one of my favorite fighters. I just like his style. I like everything about him, and I’m on his undercard.”
After being so harshly treated by the sport for so long, Cameron, with his laid-back Sheffield accent dripping with wonder, marvels at the opportunity he has been handed.
He may sound like he is simply pleased to have been chosen, but he now strikes a distinctly different and more confident tone to the one he struck before his fight with Lyndon Arthur in June.
That night was Cameron’s long shot at redemption.
In 2018, Cameron was hit with a four-year ban after a post-fight urine sample returned a positive test for a metabolite of cocaine. Although he protests his innocence to this day, he was forced to step away from the sport – and subsequently spiraled into depression. The tragic death of his stepdaughter in a road traffic accident eventually provided him with the motivation and inspiration to get himself back together, and he is determined to return in her honor.
Cameron was plucked from the six-round comeback trail and pitched directly into a fight with the former world title challenger. He spoke positively beforehand, but few held much hope for him. He pressed the action smartly throughout, and after he emerged from his first real fight in years with a split decision defeat, his reputation was dramatically enhanced.
“I thought I outworked him – I honestly did,” Cameron said.
“The amount of people at the show and boxing people that thought I won … I’ve not been around the scene as much as Lyndon has. I’m a quiet guy. So for people to come up to me and say, ‘You won that fight – honestly, you won it’ says a lot. I thought I outworked him. I’ll be straight: I thought I did.”
Blessings wear many disguises, and so fickle is the paranoid world of boxing. Does Cameron believe he would have been given the fight with Whittaker had his arm been raised after the fight with Arthur?
“Maybe,” he said. “But, then again, in some people’s eyes, I did win the fight. Let’s say 60-40, people thought I won that fight. Commentary were biased, too.”
Cameron is, of course, right. The people entrusted with Whittaker’s development will look much deeper than a “W” or an “L” on a record and will have studied his performance against Arthur forensically.
In June, Whittaker completed 10 rounds against Nigeria’s Ezra Arenyeka, but he did so entirely on his own terms, as the unknown but outspoken challenger kept his hands in his pockets. He will get 10 totally different rounds from Cameron.
Arthur has been competing at the highest level for years and was good enough to outbox Anthony Yarde and navigate his way through 12 hard rounds with Dmitry Bivol – but he still had trouble taming Cameron.
Because the fight has been placed on such a high-profile card, it has been overlooked and, in some quarters, criticized. But given Whittaker’s dominant yet one-paced performance against the underwhelming Arenyeka and Cameron’s determined effort against Arthur, this is a decent piece of matchmaking and a legitimate step up in competition for the showboating, crowd-pleasing Whittaker.
“I know how good I am,” Cameron said. ”I’m not a mug, do you know what I mean? Do you know when you spar easy people and you know it’s easy and you can do what you want? When you spar hard kids, you have to be on your ball, and this is one of them [for Whittaker].
“You can do all this shit – I’m not saying he’s not going to do it with me; I don’t know – but you’ve got to have a bit more about you, too. It’s not that easy.
“That guy he fought who’s on his highlight reel [Khalid Graidia], he’s a 42-year-old fella. Lost nearly every fight and been stopped about three times, and he’s tiny for the weight.
“When I watched [Whittaker], it actually made me laugh. But I don’t really want to disrespect him,” Cameron said before being reminded that he can be honest without being disrespectful.
“My honest opinion is it’s going to be different levels.
“Is he going to be able to take every shot? I’m a bit like a wall coming at you. I’m trying to drain you, make you work, and I’ve seen his gas tank go a bit. That’s not because of anything. I think it’s just experience.
“You can spar hundreds of rounds, but when you’re under them lights and someone’s coming at you – and I can take a lot of hammer – and just keeps coming. And I’m not a bad boxer.”
After an uneven start to his career, Cameron was the Commonwealth middleweight champion and had really begun to find his feet when he was hit with his lengthy ban. He can do a lot of catching up in one fell swoop with a win in October.
On the surface, Whittaker appears made from the glamorous, wall-to-wall media coverage provided by an appearance on a Riyadh Season card, but he is also renowned for his hard work and dedication in the gym. Cameron is determined to find out just how hard Whittaker is willing to work when the small gloves go on and he finds himself in a real fight.
“Right, he’s a famous lad from the little that he’s done,” Cameron said of Whittaker. “That can make you softer. When you ain’t got to hustle and grind like I have, you can become soft. You do become soft. I’ve been told he was soft on Team [Great Britain] as well. He didn’t like it when it got hard.
“But that’s just rumors. But he’s a bit of a showman, isn’t he? He’s done the grind now. He’s probably got a nice bank balance as well. It makes you soft.
“But you can be deluded about this fight. You can look at me and think, ‘Oh, he’s lost six times. He’s a bum.’ This is what I’ve heard. But you ain’t got a fucking clue.”
John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79.
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