(MAY 19)
Team GB boxers, Savannah Marshall (the only woman to have
defeated Claressa Shields) and Chantelle Cameron have this
week joined Nicola Adams and Ireland’s Katie Taylor in the
Pro ranks. Another GB boxer, Natasha Jonas joined the pros
last month.
Cameron, a
former kickboxing champion, will make her Pro debut at
Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena on 26 May when her opponent will
be Poland’s Karina Kopinska.
In an
interview Thursday with the ‘Northampton Chronicle’, Cameron
said that she had signed up with the Cyclone Promotions team
and was looking forward to a successful career in the Pro’s.
“I am so
excited,” Cameron said. “I was adamant I had stopped boxing
and was hanging up my gloves last year, but I had a meeting
with the McGuigan family in March.
“We talked
about me going pro and the hunger for boxing returned. I am
26 now and in know pro boxing is where I want to finish my
fighting career. I have been in the Great Britain setup for
seven years and had gone stale. I was not enjoying it so
this change is what I needed to keep me boxing and in the
ring.”
“I am going
to have some good opponents and women’s pro boxing is taking
off so it’s very exciting and I’m ready to put my stamp on
my division. “I’m going to be boxing between 58 and 62kg
mixing up the divisions for more fights.
“Katie
Taylor is a massive inspiration. She is the reason why many
women are now signing over to the pro ranks. She has opened
doors for the likes of me.”
Cyclone
Promotions Shane McGuigan had this to say via Social Media :
“Extremely happy to announce @chancam91 has turned
professional with Cyclone Promotions & my small stable of
fighters. She's going to be a fantastic professional & has
so much excitement to her style of boxing. Watch this space
& follow her journey”.
Hartlepool’s Savannah Marshall, a close friend and up to now
also a member of the GB ‘amateur’ squad defeated Claressa
Shields at the 2012 AIBA World championships, the Flint
woman’s only defeat to date in a career where she registered
77 victories and only that one loss.
The duo
seem destined to meet again in the future now that both are
Pros though Marshall has yet to have her first Pro bout. She
has joined Mayweather Promotions. Even before the Marshall
news officially broke Shields had tweeted: "Yes, yes, yes.
Savannah Marshall has turned pro! The amateur brackets can't
save her.
“The best
news I’ve heard in a while! Her ass is kicked! @Mayweather
Promo set it up!”
Marshall
though will not be fazed by any of Shields tweets. As she
told ‘Hartlepool Mail’ Sports Editor Roy Kelly:
“I would
love to be world champion, that’s my dream. I’m only 25 and
feel my best years are still ahead of me. With Mayweather
Promotions, I feel I can go all the way to the top.
“This is an
unbelievable opportunity for me and I can’t wait to get
started. “I don’t really want to get involved in any
squabbling with Claressa. “I am aiming to secure a world
championship and I know she’ll be looking to do exactly the
same. “I’m pretty sure our paths will cross at some point,
but I’m not going to go around calling her out.”
As for
Mayweather Promotions, Marshall was introduced to the
British Media on Thursday with Floyd Mayweather saying:
“She’s
remarkable, she’s unbelievable, she’s an Olympian, a
champion, she deserves to be with us,” Everything takes
time, we’re not here to talk bad about Shields because she
won two gold medals, if I’m not mistaken. “The girl we just
signed, she’s the last person to have beaten her, if I’m not
mistaken. “The girl we just signed, she’s a helluva fighter
also. “We don’t know what the future holds.”
GB Boxing
also tweeted their “good luck” message to their former
fighter : “We would like to wish good luck to two-time
Olympian and 2012 world middleweight champion
@Smarshall1991, all the best for the future!” The Headland
ABC boxer from Hartlepool had also taken bronze in the 2016
World championships in Astana.
Double
Olympic Gold medal winner (like Shields) Nicola Adams scored
an impressive 3rd round stoppage in Leeds last weekend
against Hungary’s 18 yrs. old Maryan Salazar and hopes soon
to be fighting for a world title telling the ‘Daily
Telegraph’ that she did not intend having a long
professional career:
"I'll
probably do max about four years," said Adams who won every
available AIBA/EUBC title . "I don't want to go on too
long," she said. "I want to retire at the top having
achieved everything. I don't want to be one of the boxers
that keeps on going and keeps on going and then loses and
loses and loses. I want to retain my legacy."
Outside of
the ring, Adams also talked to the ‘Daily Mail’ about her
partner former, USA Olympian – and now herself a Pro, Marlen
Esparza. Will they ever meet in the ring?:
“Oh, no. We
will never box each other. We’d known each other for five or
six years but never really spoke.
'We were
each other’s nemesis even though we never fought. About a
year ago we were both at a training camp in Colorado and got
talking. That was it.’
‘It’s the
perfect partnership,’ she added ‘When you’re a boxer you
know the reasons we have to be selfish. But previously in my
life it was (someone saying), “Why are you ignoring me, why
are you so quiet, why can’t we just go out to dinner?”
So now
whilst they seem highly unlikely to meet, they both hope to
achieve their goal of a World Pro title at different
weights.
Another
recent British amateur to turn Pro is Natasha Jonas who met
Katie Taylor in the 60kg quarter finals at the 2012 Olympic
Games in London. She’s joined the Steve Goodwin Promotions
team with trainer Joe Gallagher. So she too will be hoping
for a return against the Bray woman in the none too distant
future. Taylor won that fight under the then AIBA scoring
system 26-15.
What have
the boxers to say? Taylor : "Yeah, it was a great fight in
London," she said. "Every time we boxed as amateurs it was
always a very exciting fight so why not? Why not box again
in the pros?
As for
Jonas, she’s been talking to IFLV.tv and of her pro career,
a possible ‘re-match’ with Taylor and her own new backroom
team; this is what she had to say via ‘You Tube’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=954urn-C3u8
A reminder
of the Taylor v Jonas fight in London 2012 is here courtesy
“You Tube” :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OB12PC6ias
