Liam Cameron announces move back down to super-middleweight
Liam Cameron will drop back down to super-middleweight
Sheffield star Liam Cameron (23-7-1, 10 KOs) just announced his move back down a division, "It's time to move to a much more natural weight, super-middleweight, I just can't keep away!"
The 34-year-old has had his last six fights at light-heavyweight and above.
He last fought against Ben Whittaker in their IBF International light-heavyweight rematch on April 20 in Birmingham. "The Surgeon" stopped the "Cannonball" in two rounds despite mang viewers believing the stoppage was premature.
However, the likeable Cameron hasn't complained and took the moment of his announcement to thank the fans for their support, "Thanks everyone for the messages, that support in Birmingham was incredible."
Cameron begun his professional boxing career in 2009, weighing as light as 156lbs for some of his earlier contests.
At 12-1, he fought for the Central Area middleweight title, losing to Jez Wilson on points in Sheffield. It wasn't until his 19th contest in May 2014 when he won his first professional title - the vacant IBO Youth super-middleweight title.
In 2015 and 2016, he twice challenged for the Commonwealth super-middleweight title, even travelling to Australia for the second attempt, losing both bouts by UD. He eventually won the title on his third crack in 2017, down at middleweight against Sam Sheedy.
He retained his title with a second-round stoppage over Nicky Jenman in 2018, but that's where his career derailed, after traces of benzoylecgonine [a metabolite of cocaine] were found in a post-fight UKAD test, and was subjected to a four-year ban. He protested his innocence, even flying out to Sweden to plead his case, but to no avail.
It was over five years later when he came back and he made up for lost time by fighting three times within six months, then he landed a TV fight against Lyndon Arthur. He pushed the IBO world champion all the way to a split decision verdict in their WBA Inter-Continental light-heavyweight title fight on Channel 5.
With his stock risen in that narrow defeat to Arthur, Cameron was selected to give Ben Whittaker a test in their October 2024 IBF International and WBO Global light-heavyweight title fight in Saudi Arabia. However, he was grossly underestimated as he gave Whittaker too much of a tough time until they both bizarrely fell over the top ropes, out of the ring, where Whittaker was unable to continue due to an "ankle injury".
Their rematch last month headlined a BOXXER event, live on Sky Sports, and provided Cameron with life-changing money to be able to pay off his mortgage and make his life with his children comfortable.
Back from the Brink
It was lying in a hospital bed after taking an overdose around two years ago when Liam Cameron realised he desperately needed to change. The Sheffield boxer had been blue-lighted to hospital and he thought the end was coming.
This is a tragic tale in which he had to deal with the loss of his boxing career, depression, alcohol abuse and the tragic death of his beloved stepdaughter.
“It wasn’t a good time. I was drinking every day. I was either going to be killed or kill someone. I was that bad. I was saying the same rubbish ‘I’ll start Monday, I’ll stop drinking by Monday’, but I never did. I ended up having an overdose, ambulance came for me and I thought I was dead.
“I said then ‘listen if I can survive this I’ll stop drinking’ and from that day - it will be two years in January - that happened.”
In the midst of all this, Cameron’s step-daughter Tiegan, 20, was devastatingly killed in a car accident in 2020.
“That was a horrendous day, a really sad day,” he said. “I used to take her to the boxing gym when she was younger, she watched me win the Commonwealth title.
“She text me after the ban saying ‘I hope you sort yourself out and stop drinking and get yourself back to the gym’. I wrote a Facebook status on my girlfriend’s [Tanya Scott] page saying ‘I will fight for you again, I promise you’.
“But I didn’t do it initially. Then I thought ‘I made a promise here to this girl that I would do it’.”
After the overdose, Cameron got back on track. The old habits were kicked and, at over 19 stone, he ran marathons to shed weight.
His title fight against Arthur was the first fight that gave him the payday he had been working so hard for. “I’ve already turned my life around but this will change it completely,” he had said before the contest.
“If Tiegan’s up there she can give me this favour and give me a bit of luck. I’m asking for a favour from her.”
Although he didn't win the fight, he won the hearts of fight fans and respect of his peers. It was his performance in that contest that led Whittaker's team to handpick him as an opponent for their up-and-coming superstar.
Their first fight ended in the controversial draw and the rematch was just as bizarre with the very early stoppage decision.
However, our hero has emerged from both those bouts with life-changing money, which he openly attributed to a contractual error that saw him sign for a 12-round contest instead of BOXXER's preferred 10-rounds, which they had compensaie him for.
He openly shared, "They paid me an absolute fortune to get it [down]. I have grabbed every opportunity with both hands and made the most I can get."
And now Cameron is all set for another chapter in his story as he heads back down to shake up the super-middleweight division.
