“It took a long time to get here. But now everything is really fine for me.” Opening words from a fighter who often swam against the tide in her long and often problematic boxing career.

Sports haven’t always treated Chantelle Cameron kindly. Perhaps the understatement of any year. But she seems the happiest she’s ever been. The recent transition to Frank Warren has revived many things. A player who simply wanted to be treated more as a priority. A warrior who just wanted a little love and understanding.

“It would be a love-hate relationship to explain my boxing career,” Cameron said. “When I love it, I’m in a very good place. But when I hate something, I just can’t care less. But it’s all I’ve done since I was a kid, so it’s solid to let go of it. The highs are so high and the lows are so low, with very little in between. It’s obviously great that I’m making money, but in some ways it’s better if it’s just a hobby.”

Cameron says during gloomy times there were thoughts of leaving. “Many times I have wondered what the point is. The money is obviously good once you get to that level. But is it really worth it mentally? I talked about it all the time with people I’m close to. It’s a very demanding job. But I built some very sturdy arms. Now I just ride the ups and downs. I just swim with them. I’ve been involved in this sport for a long time and I think I’m only now getting used to it.

“I love fighting and why would I leave because of all the politics in this sport. I love fighting and I’m good at it, and leaving would be cowardly. I won’t let others push me out of the sport. I’ll go when I say so. It’s like a drug. This sport is so addictive that you are always waiting for the next portion of excitement. That’s why so many boxers struggle in retirement, because that’s the hardest part. What is your goal now. You have no structure.”

Cameron is currently writing his final chapter in the sport. But the ambitions are still high. The former undisputed super lightweight world champion hopes her career will end with redemption, revenge and closure. But even though the fire still burns, there is one eye on life without boxing.

“I’m planning now. I arrange everything. I’m starting my own gym. I find myself in the right position, so I’m one of those boxers who comes out cheerful. I don’t want to be someone who always comes back, knowing that my body can’t do it anymore, but my brain won’t let up. I want to leave the sport when I want and I know I will be stable once I leave. I have very good people around me, so I am very blessed.

Two incredible fights with Katie Taylor in 2023 were marred by internal politics that overshadowed two truly memorable nights. As a result, the emotional victory over Taylor in Dublin in their first meeting has been somewhat lost in history. Then the story should be primarily about Cameron and that notable victory. Unfortunately, the praise did not reach her. The narrative always lied elsewhere. But Cameron still has positive memories of that first fight, despite everything that came after.

“I beat the Queen of Boxing on her homecoming. I did what I set out to do, I became undisputed and cemented it by beating Katie Taylor. I finished boxing. That’s why I’m in a better mind space now. I have a good team around me. What a situation to find yourself in. How many people can say they achieved what they set out to do? I have nothing to prove to anyone and now I’m going to have some fun.

Cameron fought her first fight under the Queensberry banner in July, scoring a points win over the incredibly tough Elhem Mekhaled in Birmingham. In many ways, it was a fight from which lessons were learned.

“I felt very bad. I had a sinus and chest infection,” Cameron says of his first appearance since losing his undefeated record to Taylor in Dublin. “I had to fight. I had to get over the loss with Katie. This was my debut at Queensberry. This was one of them where I knew I had to fight. Recently, many women have been inactive in women’s boxing. As for me, I was assigned a date and a chance and I just had to go through with it. This doesn’t take anything away from my opponent. She was a tough and good opponent, but honestly, I was very infirmed. But I’ve learned my lesson and I won’t fight next time if I’m that frail again.”

The road back to regaining her world titles continues, on November 2 she fought against former world champion Patricia Berghult. The goal of this fight was to make a real statement and send a miniature warning to her opponents.

“I just want to put on a good performance,” Cameron assured before the fight. “I’m not going to pat myself on the back for my last performance because I know I can do much better. I want to remind everyone who the top super lightweight fighter in the world is. I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself, but at the same time I have to show what I can do. I have changed a lot since the change of coaches and I have to show it now.

“I’m so grateful that Queensberry is activating me because a lot of girls don’t come out. I am not complacent and I approach these fights as if they were fighting for the world title. Ultimately, if you become complacent, this is how you will be exposed. I’m just cheerful to be vigorous and get into fights.”

A victory over Berghult should put Cameron back on the gigantic stage in 2025. With Taylor and Amanda Serrano settling their differences, the super lightweight rankings should be a little clearer. But make no mistake, Cameron wants Taylor again. A rivalry he considers unfinished business.

“I want the Katie Taylor trilogy. I want my chance at redemption. That’s why this will always be my top priority. That’s what I want and it would be a real shame if that third fight never happened. But you can’t force someone to do what they don’t want to do.”

If the path back to the world titles is blocked at 140, Cameron also has options to seek novel challenges at welterweight. The fight with IBF champion Natasha Jonas has been brewing in the background for a long time. Two friends who would have no problem sharing a ring together. However, Mikaela Mayer, currently a two-weight world champion thanks to her recent hard-fought victory over Sandy Ryan in Modern York that gave the American the WBO welterweight title, is now also a real possibility. “I would love to fight Mikaela Mayer, I have a lot of respect for her,” Cameron says about a possible fight with Mayer.

But whoever Cameron faces next, if she overtakes Berghult in November, she has plenty of options ahead of her.

I want to take part in gigantic fights and become world champion again. But I just want to be cheerful and enjoy fighting again.” These last words are probably crucial for Chantelle Cameron. Boxing was both cruel and kind to her. The warrior is sometimes misrepresented, her words taken out of context. But a lot has changed recently. The change of promoter rekindled her love for the sport and reminded her of everything that could be good in boxing. Cameron seems really cheerful. This may be her biggest victory in her career so far.

IT WAS the summer of 2018 when Jai Opetaia and his father-trainer Tapu were returning from boxing after a long day.

The talented Olympian, who had gone 15-0 in the first three years of his professional career, was so broke that he barely had enough gas to get home and wondered whether the sport he had devoted his life to would ever pay off.

As Opetaia remembers that day, she stops. “Fuck, you touched me,” he says, wiping the tears from his eyes and rubbing them on his jogging pants.

“I remember that trip home very vividly. we just didn’t have any coin, we were having a shitty day and we were like, “What the hell does that make sense?” We both talked about quitting boxing and joining the local soccer club.

“We gave boxing everything we had, but we got nothing in return. People don’t know what a rollercoaster I was on. Recalling moments like these from where I am now only shows the fruits of my labor. It makes everything sweeter.”

In the six years since that day, Opetaia has gone 25-0, 19 KOs, and is the current IBF cruiserweight champion and arguably the best 200-pound fighter in the world. On Saturday, he will defend his title for the fourth time in his third fight in a row in Saudi Arabia, where he is the clear favorite of Turki Alalshikh.

Money is not so crucial these days, but the fire inside still burns. There are warriors who wear their hearts on their sleeves, and then there is Opetaia.

“I think I was about 18 before I got my first paycheck,” he says. “Because my fights were so spread out and it was so challenging to get on cards in Australia, I had to invest in myself. C***s have no idea what a fucking journey we’ve been through, man.

“People now see Saudi cards and stuff like that, but they haven’t invested in themselves. They win a few fights and expect high earnings, and that means they miss out on good opportunities. At first, we just wanted opportunities. We went for every possible card. We were losing money on fight cards, we weren’t selling tables, we were in the trenches.

“Whether it was money for sparring or training camps, we didn’t have money for fuel to get to the Sydney sparring session. It was challenging for us, but we found a way and got the cards. It’s been one hell of a journey and that’s why it means so much to me.

That victory over Mairis Briedis in July 2022 not only clinched his world title, but also catapulted him to superstardom. However, it was a victory that kept him out of the ring for over a year, as he broke both sides of his jaw at the hands of the Latvian.

“I know I deserve to be here because I went through these challenging times,” he says. “Those frail points and that wasn’t the only one. Eating through a straw for four months was one of them too, those are mind games. I’ve been there and picked myself up off the ground, so now I know what I have to do.

“Even when I broke my arm, I was in a cast for nine months and weighed about 117 kg, I was coming back from the injury. I thought my career was over and that was the fight before Briedis. I went into surgery and was in a cast for nine months and then I got really fat and fat. I drank alcohol and that was it. I was a nobody then, I was a dead nobody.

“I remember my first session, I went to the gym and did two rounds of jumping, punched the bag for two rounds, and then I sat down and just said, ‘My career is over.’ I honestly thought that was it… but 12 months later I beat Briedis. The emotional rollercoaster I’ve been through is fucking crazy.

“And you know what the key is: just show up. That’s all, just show up. Get there. The hardest part is just getting into the gym. The alarm goes off early in the morning and you just think, “What the fuck is going on?” Once you’re in the gym, you’re in business. The hardest thing was to play consistently but achieve absolutely nothing and believe in a goal that was so far away. But now that we’re here, it’s crazy.”

He’s the clear favorite on Saturday night, when 31-year-old Jack Massey tries to turn the cruiserweight division upside down with an unexpected victory. Given the intensity with which Opetaia speaks, it’s tough to imagine him disrespecting anyone, especially considering he now has another mouth to feed on back home. He and his partner welcomed their first child, Lyla Robyn Opetaia, on July 1, marking his first fight as a father.

“It’s a strange set of emotions, but it’s all part of it,” says Opetaia, who left Australia for England in September and will only return after the fight.

“It needs to be done, it adds fuel to the fire, and we are here for a specific purpose. We’re not here to waste time, we have work to do and then I can go home and spend money on my family.

“The birth was a good experience. I cried, I couldn’t stop. Everyone asked if I cried when the baby was born – brother, I cried before, during and after, emotions came and went. It was an amazing journey.

“I was often around children. We are Pacific Islanders, with children everywhere in our huge families. There’s a gigantic age difference between my brothers and sisters, so I’m kind of used to having kids at home.

“Having my own body is obviously a different feeling, but I’ve been waiting for it for a long time. When you have a good partner, life becomes much easier. He’s been there since day one, he knows when I’m gone I have to flip the switch to turn into a warrior. That’s why I don’t come to many fights because it’s tough for me to reconcile my gentle side with my aggression.

“She knows all about it. We’ve been together for 13 years, childhood sweetheart, it’s been a journey, brother. She was the breadwinner when I had nothing. We started from fucking scratch.
Another person who accompanied Opetai on almost every step of his journey is Tapu. However, Saturday night will be their first fight together in almost three years and their first with Opetaia as champion.

Having coached the first 21 fights of his son’s professional career, the couple separated. However, in this case, they are reunited and Opetaia Jr is adamant that it is worth the risk.

“There were a few things we disagreed on, a few issues,” Opetaia says of the initial breakup. “But we have moved forward and developed as people, so I felt the break was good for us. Now we are back together and moving forward, so everything is positive.

“That’s good. It’s back to basics, man. Coming back to capabilities and skills, stop trying to knock everyone’s heads off. I’m going back to what brought me here and I feel like I’ll show it in this fight.

“I’ve changed a lot since he was last in my corner, which was the fight before I won the title. They’re two completely different people, man. Entering and exiting the ring. It was fun finding that balance and it took a few weeks, but we found it and I feel like it’s going to work. That’s good.

“He’s a great boxing coach, in my opinion one of the best. I feel like it was the right move, it was astute, and I feel like everything is positive. There is always risk, there will always be change, but you have to adapt to change. I feel good and I feel this will take us to the next level.

With this, Opetaia is ready. Six years had passed since the conversation that almost ended the pursuit, but he had never looked back.

Next month, the fight for the so-called “world No. 1 belt” will take place in Florida.

On December 6 in Pembroke Pines, Richie Leak, a 45-year-old removal specialist and father of four from Blackpool, will fight for the Police Gazette diamond belt in a bare-knuckle heavyweight fight.

The last British bare-knuckle fighter to come so close to a title shot was Jem Smith in 1887.

The Shoreditch fighter faced Jake Kilrain for the right to fight John L. Sullivan and fought for almost three hours in front of 79 spectators until it was declared a draw due to being outshone by Smith’s 74 supporters after the Londoner’s fall.

Leak is expected to have his lights out next month.

Gustavo Trujillo is the latest heavyweight to win the Police Gazette diamond belt, restored by Scott Burt, president of the Bareknuckle Boxing Hall of Fame, in 2016.

The “Cuban Assassin” – also a 6-0 (5) professional gloves boxer who lives in Miami – won all six of his bare-knuckle fights in the opening round.

“I would like to get to the second round,” said Trujillo, 31, “but they are too basic!

“There is no room in my fight plan for looking for a first-round knockout, it just happens.”

Trujillo showed off the shot selection and defense of the Cuban amateur boxer he was not.

“I wasn’t a boxer in Cuba,” he said. “I was a Greco-Roman Olympic wrestler.”

Which didn’t make him wealthy.

Trujillo left Cuba ten years ago with the intention of becoming a millionaire.

Boxing with gloves will likely make him more money than bare-knuckle boxing, but BYB Extreme keeps him busier and keeps audiences rooting for a sport in which 96 percent of fights go the distance.

Leak knows he faces a knockout next month and shrugs off the danger in the matter-of-fact way of someone who worked on doors in Blackpool as a teenager.

Leak gives the impression that no matter what Trujillo did to him, he’s had worse nights.

“I started working on doors when I was 18 because I could always argue,” he said, “but it was a terrible job.

“The local boys can’t misbehave because we’ll block them or bump into them, but the ones who come for the weekend think they can do whatever they want because they’re on the coach on Monday morning.

“They don’t care – and there are 20 buddies behind them.

“I got stabbed while I was working on a door, but luckily it hit my fat ass so there was plenty of padding!”

Leak looks very much like a Victorian boxer with a beard that earned him the nickname “The Viking.”

“It doesn’t assist me absorb the punches,” he laughed. “If I thought so, I would have grown it even longer.”

After the first round of his fight with Dan Podmore in March, his beard was stained with blood.

As is often the case in bare-knuckle boxing, Leak found the punches that turned the tide of the fight and won in the third round.

This won him the BKB heavyweight championship.

BKB has since been purchased by BYB Extreme and their champion is Trujillo.

The champions meet at the Charles F. Dodge City Center in a triangle described as the smallest fighting area in combat sports, and Trujillo is the first to defend the Police Gazette diamond belt first worn by Sullivan, the hard-living “Boston Sturdy Boy” who claimed that he inherited his strength from his Irish mother.

The belt was the invention of Richard Kyle Fox, a Dublin resident who, at the age of 29, emigrated to America in 1871.

He saved enough money to buy the struggling National Police Gazette and turned a struggling publication devoted to helping police find criminals into a colorful and controversial tabloid that gave away prizes for outlandish feats such as the longest frog jump.

Fox noticed that his readers had an appetite for sports, especially bare-knuckle boxing.

The sport was illegal in every state of America, and to counteract this, the Police Gazette reported on fights only two weeks after they took place.

Sullivan was considered America’s best fighter, and Fox supported Irishman Paddy Ryan to defeat him.

In the April 16, 1881 issue of the Police Gazette, he declared that Sullivan and Ryan would fight for “$1,000 a side, the American heavyweight championship” and “a facsimile of the belt for which Heenan and Sayers fought.”

Heenan is John C. Heenan and Sayers is Tom Sayers, the best fighters in America and England respectively.

They met near Farnborough in April 1860 and both received their belts after beating each other unconscious for two hours and 20 minutes.

The Police Gazette belt would have been in jeopardy when Ryan, Tipperary, of Troy, Modern York, and Sullivan faced each other in Mississippi City on February 7, 1882, in a 24-foot ring under London Prize Ring rules.

“Back when Sullivan was fighting, you could throw your opponent and the round would end when the knee hit the ground,” Burt said. “Some rounds lasted a few seconds, some lasted 20 minutes.”

The fighters were given 30 seconds to recover from the knockdown, and then the fight was resumed.

“Officially, Sullivan has had 51 fights,” Burt said. “If we include all the fights in bars, it will be closer to 500!

“He only fought three times bare-knuckle, against Paddy Ryan, Charley Mitchell and Jake Kilrain.

“He hated bare-knuckle boxing. You could point your eyes out and grab your hair.

“It was tedious to watch too. People left the fights. They just kept fighting until one of them gave up and they landed too many punches.

“The promoters talked to the players and told them they were afraid of breaking their arms.

“The promoters put on gloves, so they threw more punches, there were more knockouts, and it was better to watch.”

There were another 5,000 people there to see Sullivan fight Ryan, including outlaws Jesse and Frank James in drag.

They saw Sullivan drop Ryan to the jaw after 30 seconds and recalled the fight on “Memories of ’19.”vol Century Gladiator” Sullivan said the match was called off after 11 minutes because Ryan was “so disabled that the best medical care was required.”

After the fight, Fox found himself at the same bar as Sullivan and asked the waitress to invite Sullivan for a beer.

According to Burt, Sullivan replied, “No reporter is taking me away from my friends. He will have to come here.

Fox heard – as Sullivan intended – and became furious.

Burt said: “Fox wanted revenge on Sullivan and got Jake Kilrain to challenge him.

“Sullivan refused because he thought Kilrain was out of his league.

“Fox took the belt off him, put diamonds in it, called it the belt of the world and gave it to Kilrain.”

Kilrain, another Modern Yorker of Irish blood, therefore became the first holder of the Police Gazette diamond belt – until Sullivan took it from him in 1889 after a fight lasting 75 rounds – that is, two hours and 16 minutes.

This was the last world heavyweight title fight under the London Prize Ring Rules, and subsequent holders of the Police Gazette diamond belt during the glove era included Bob Fitzsimmons before the rise of The Ring magazine and the decline and eventual demise of The National Police Gazette in 1932 The belt was undisputed for over a hundred years.

Burt decided to refurbish the belt in 2016 and gifted it to Bobby Gunn, a former Canadian professional glove boxer with roots in the Irish traveling community, to “set the ball rolling in the current era.”

In 2019, Joey Beltran, a former UFC fighter from California nicknamed the “Mexecutioner,” became the first heavyweight to capture the Police Gazette diamond belt in a bare-knuckle heavyweight fight since Sullivan defeated Chase Sherman 130 years earlier in over five innings in Mississippi.

AJ Adams and now Trujillo have won the belt.

Burt said: “It was the first belt passed from champion to champion.

“There were other belts that were put up for battle after the match was over, but in the case of the Police Gazette diamond belt, you had to defeat the champion to win the belt.

“It’s the No. 1 belt in the world. There is no other belt like this. The history of no other belt comes close.”