Chantelle Cameron was doing an interview at her trainer Jamie Moore’s gym in Salford when news came through of Dillian Whyte’s injury. She thought it would scupper the fight she had already been in training for ten weeks for, but it ended up being a huge break in her career. 

Cameron’s fight with Mary McGee was due to be chief support to Whyte’s heavyweight fight with Otto Wallin at the O2 Arena, London. Like most others, she expected the show to be called off when Whyte pulled out with a shoulder injury. She certainly did not expect to be promoted to the top of the bill. But now she will join a very elite group of stars from sport and showbusiness who have headlined at London’s biggest indoor venue. 

“It was media day in the gym and then news came out that Dillian Whyte had a shoulder injury,” Cameron, the WBC super-lightweight champion, said. “To be honest I thought that the show was going to be cancelled because there was no one to headline.  

“I went to bed, had a rubbish night’s sleep because I thought the show was off and I was just waiting for the confirmation that it would all be cancelled. But I woke up to a message from my head coach, Jamie, saying ‘you’re the headliner’.” 

A good job then that Cameron had not decided to break diet when she thought her fight was off. 

“I had been training for ten weeks,” she said. “It could easily have been a cheat night, but until it was 100 percent confirmed, I wasn’t going to risk it.  

“I feel very lucky. Considering how many boxers have struggled during Covid, things have been going well for me. I’ve had tough times but it’s a tough sport and you have to ride those moments out. 

“I got a world title shot during Covid, I’ve had a defense in Las Vegas and now I am having a unification. 

“You look at Jack Catterall from my gym, it feels like he has been mandatory for years and he still hasn’t got his shot [his fight with Josh Taylor having just been pushed back to February], so it has been going quite well for me.” 

Cameron’s fight with McGee, the IBF champion from Gary, Indiana, is the first in promoter Eddie Hearn’s mini tournament to crown an undisputed world champion at super-lightweight, to fit neatly between the other undisputed champions, Katie Taylor and Jessica McCaskill at lightweight and welterweight respectively. The next part will happen on November 19 at Manchester, New Hampshire, when Kali Reis faces Jessica Camara for the WBA and WBO belts, with the winners to face each other next year. 

Cameron, 30, who spent years on the GB amateur squad but missed out on qualification to the Rio Olympics, says she was thrilled when the idea of the tournament was put to her. 

“It is there now to achieve,” she said. “There are great champions in this tournament and we are all in it to win it. It is very exciting, the best woman is going to win and it is just great that this is happening in women’s boxing.” 

She admits she hasn’t even looked at either Reis or Camara yet, knowing that while McGee lacks Cameron’s amateur grounding, the American, who has been a professional for 16 years, is not to be taken lightly. 

“She is strong, tough, lot of experience, but I have the beating of her,” Cameron said. “I’m better than her in every department. The amateur background puts you in good stead, but I can’t fall into the trap of think that if she doesn’t have that she is not going to be of the same level.  

“You can’t be complacent. The pros are very different from the amateurs. She’s strong, she can hit, she’s got a good record. 

“The other semi-final is a great fight, but I’m not looking at that. I can’t focus on that, it won’t bother me if I don’t get the win.” 

One thing she can look forward to is boxing in front of friends and family again. The people closest to her, who followed her around the globe as an amateur, have been shut out of her world title fights. 

When she won the WBC title by beating Adriana dos Santos Araujo in Milton Keynes last year, it was behind closed doors. When she made a title defense against Melissa Hernandez at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in May, no one outside her team was allowed to travel to the United States. 

“I’ve sold a good few tickets,” Cameron said. “I can’t wait to box in front of my friends and family again. When I won the world title, no one was there and when I boxed in Las Vegas, no one was allowed to travel.  

“It’s two years since they saw me box and they would come and watch me every fight as an amateur.  

“My mum gets very nervous, where she doesn’t actually like me fighting, but my dad is very supportive. She always asks me to quit, but I always say I’ve got more to do yet. I don’t even think about when I might retire.” 

One fight that could be in her future if she becomes undisputed champion would be a fight with Taylor, although Cameron is doubtful it would happen. Cameron – who had five wins over 2-16 Olympic champion Estelle Mossely in the amateur ranks – boxed Taylor once before, at the European Union Championships in Poland in 2011. 

“It was my second tournament and she beat me in the semi-final,” Cameron said. “It was ten years ago. I was a novice and she was the queen of boxing, so for me it was massive, it was a great experience.  

“I’ve been chasing the Katie fight for so long now, I don’t think it is going to happen, but it’s a fight I would love.” 

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.