Chantelle Cameron has wanted to box near to home for her entire career. She gets the chance to do that on Sunday, in the biggest fight of her life, when she finally gets the chance to put her Olympic disappointment behind her. It is just rotten luck that none of her family or friends can be there to watch.

Cameron boxes Adriana Araujo for the vacant WBC super-lightweight title at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes on Sunday in the first Matchroom show since the end of Fight Camp. The venue is about 20 miles from her home in Northampton, making it a rare home fight for the 29-year-old who spent much of her amateur career travelling the globe and her 12-fight professional career on the road. Unfortunately, none of the family and friends that have followed her on long away trips will be able to be there.

“It’s literally down the road, about 20 minutes,” Cameron said. “I once boxed on an amateur home show, but that was it. So I’m actually delighted, I just wish fans could be there.”

It is six years since Cameron walked away from the sport after the heartache of failing to qualify for the Rio Olympics, when she was beaten in the qualifying event in Kazakhstan. Winning a world title will make up for that dark time.

“If I win this world title it will put Rio to bed, 100 percent,” she said. “It was awful. It was a bit embarrassing as well, because everyone else from GB who went to the qualifiers qualified and I didn’t. 

“It was a bad stage of my life. Then I went to the Europeans and got robbed. I was boxing a Russian and boxed her head off, but she got the decision. That was when I decided to give up. I used to cry when I lost, but that time I just laughed.”

Cameron was thinking of moving to Australia, having been offered a job teaching boxing in women’s shelters. 

“I was walking away from boxing, I wasn’t thinking about going pro,” she said. “My plan was to go to travel and get a job. Then I went to the gym and my trainer said the McGuigans wanted to meet me.”

She spent the early part of her professional career trained by Shane McGuigan and promoted by Cyclone, the company of Shane’s father, Barry. Last year she signed with MTK Global and switched trainers to Jamie Moore. Earlier this year, she signed with Matchroom. This will be her first fight under that banner.

“There have been different hurdles,” she said. “I got myself mandatory in two weights. I won the lightweight mandatory in July and heard absolutely nothing. Then I became super-lightweight mandatory in November and thought something then had to happen. But I was getting frustrated.  I thought ‘how am I doing all these mandatories and not getting a shot’. 

“Then I was told I was fighting Jessica McCaskill, but she moved up, so I wondered if it was going to happen. Then is signed with Matchroom and fortunately it all worked out.”

Araujo had more success as an amateur than Cameron, boxing at two Olympics and winning a bronze medal in London in 2012, where she shared the podium with Katie Taylor. The paths of Araujo and Cameron seldom crossed, however.

“I was on GB for eight years, so it is quite weird that we never boxed,” Cameron said. “But we were at a training camp together in Brazil once, though. Nothing really stood out.

“The amateurs are completely different from the pros and I found that out in my last fight with Sanchez. She was very experienced and the way she moved around and threw shots inside was different. 

“Adriana has a great amateur grounding, but she has only had six fights as a pro. I’m expecting a tough fight. This is the only thing I am looking at right now. If I overlook Adriana, I’m going to get beat. I can’t think or talk about any other opponents now.”

Victory would put Cameron in the conversation to face Taylor, the undisputed lightweight champion. They boxed once before, 11 years ago, Taylor winning a decision in Poland in the semi-finals of the European Union Championships. Cameron twice won eliminators to face Taylor, but it got no further than that.

“Her name is always brought up when people speak to me, but she never mentions me, I am irrelevant to her,” Cameron said. “I don’t know if she even knew I was mandatory to her.

“It’s a dream fight, I’d love it if it would happen. But I want to focus on me and she can focus on herself and if it happens, it happens.”

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. 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.