By Terence Dooley

Liam Cameron (11st 4lb), who won the 2009 ABA 69kg title, took on the tough Matt Scriven (11st 10¼lb) over six-twos.  Although a loser in six of his last seven contests, Scriven is a tough guy and he was coming off a TKO win over Terry Maughan in Nottingham last week.

Class fighters look good even when doing little or nothing and this was the case with Liam, 19, who had a fluidity that you do not often see in a debutant.  Scriven, 36, was peppered by jabs early, whacked with right hands as the rounds progressed, including a lovely right uppercut through the middle in round three, and the man from Nottingham was also hit with some hefty shots to the body.

Cameron started the fifth session with purpose, landing a, low, left hook to the body followed by left hook to the head, this shot contributed to a small nick over Scriven’s right eye.

Scriven pressed Cameron a little in the final round only for Liam to move out of range and then spring back with an attempted left uppercut.  A brace of hooks to the body, right and left, had Scriven gasping a little and the veteran looked relieved when the final bell rang.  Scriven later told us that Cameron did a better job on him than the likes of Billy Joe Saunders and Craig Watson.

The omnipresent Michael Alexander scored the fight to Cameron by 60-54 and you could not argue with that card.  Cameron looks to have a huge amount of talent at his disposal, at times it looked like he could press on for the finish but the fighter himself confirmed to me that he will make absolutely sure of success before trying to take people out.

“I enjoyed that,” said Cameron.  “Boxing Matt Scriven in my first fight was a tough test.  He’s taken on guys like Ashley Theophane and Willie Limond so to beat him by winning every round was good.  I landed clean shot and cut his eye, it was dripping blood and I could have gone for it more and stopped him but I want the stoppages to come naturally.

“If the stoppage comes it comes but he was throwing right hands over the top and coming in rough with the head so that showed me that this pro game is a different sport and sometimes you don’t want to rush in for the stoppage.

“When I train I work on everything: movement, hand speed and power.  When I get in the ring that training comes in and I can box on the back foot or the front foot.  I’m out again in December in Bradford and can’t wait for that.  I’ll have a word with my brother now, he said I was crap when I first went into boxing but he might think differently after tonight!”

Promoter Dennis Hobson was also on hand to talk about Liam.  The man who took Clinton Woods all the way to a world title believes that Cameron will is a future world champion.  “I spoke to Clinton Woods and he said he was impressed by Liam and Femi tonight,” enthused Hobson.

“Liam looked like he had been a pro for a long time, he looked so accomplished and he’s only just turned nineteen!  Don’t forget, he’ll get stronger and more seasoned so we have to look at what division will suit him and get him settled there.  We want to keep him busy.  He’s on a learning curve now but he is miles in front of a lot of pros.  I’m just glad that he decided to turn pro with me and join our camp.

“That tonight was Femi’s best performance.  He did a cracking job and Joe and Kerry have done well with him.  He was a little tense but that is understandable after his year out of the sport.  If he can keep improving, and I think he can do, then he’s going to be a contender for titles very soon.

“I’ve been out of the game for a bit but me and Clinton did some massive things and had some great achievements.  It was a great story.  People forget that Clinton was a proper world champion for three years, look at his record, it is not just WBU titles on that record, Clinton fought, and beat, some of the best.  You can’t take that away from us.

“Now it is a new era and we’ve got some good kids coming through.  We’ve got Liam, obviously, but we’ve got the likes of Jamie Ward coming through, he is a raw talent and there is a lot to build on.  We hope to put some smashing shows on in the coming months.”

Tickets for Cameron’s fights can be bought on www.dennishobson.com

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