British champion Chantelle Cameron (17-0, 8 KO’s) made history on the 5th of November by beating undisputed Welterweight American champion Jessica McCaskill (12-3, 5 KO’s) by unanimous decision at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Cameron became the first British female boxer to become undisputed in the history of the sport.
Their undisputed bout was the co-main event of the Bivol vs. Ramirez card. While Cameron held the WBC, IBF and The Ring titles as the unified champion of the Junior Welterweight/Super Lightweight women’s division, the WBA, WBO and IBO titles were made vacant sometime before the fight, thereby allowing the undisputed fight to occur.
The match seemed roughly one-sided from the start as McCaskill’s pressure style of fighting didn’t seem to prove very successful. While Chantelle Cameron effectively dealt with McCaskill’s approach through her defense and counterattacks, McCaskill seemed too wild with her punches, missing often, and her inability to put power in her shots made any landed punch virtually ineffective. Though McCaskill had came forward from the start of the bell, she noticeably seemed to fight with less aggression or intensity than she had in her last fights.
Aside from some of the earlier later where McCaskill seemed to gain a bit of a spurt of energy, Cameron seemed to virtually take most – if not all – the rounds. McCaskill’s obvious but dangerous approach has often proved to be successful in the past – as evident of her previous victories against former undisputed Welterweight champion Cecilia Brækhus – but during this bout with Cameron, she did not seem to be well-prepared for Cameron’s efficiency in countering her attacks and moving against her with much the same or even greater intensity. By the championship rounds Cameron seemed well-ahead of the scorecards, and though McCaskill tried to rally herself in the efforts to score a late-round stoppage victory, she had slowed down and weakened too much due to fatigue and couldn’t make much of an impression. It therefore came to no surprise when the judges – after 10 rounds – unanimously scored the match in favor of Chantelle Cameron, though the scorecards did seem to reflect they had thought the match to be closer with scores of 97-93 and 96-94 twice.
While this latest match marks McCaskill’s third career loss, she remains the women’s Welterweight undisputed champion after moving down to Junior Welterweight for this match-up. After having unified around a year prior to this bout against Mary McGee (27-4, 15 KO’s), Cameron now holds the distinction of being the first British female champion to hold all the available belts in her division.
