Second Update: Eddie Hearn and Shane McGuigan make statements over the pulled Scotney/Johnson fight
We still don't know the full story
Speculation and rumors are flying as more statements are made about the removal of the Scotney/Johnson title fight from the Taylor/Cameron undercard. Much of this ambiguity is due to the fact that there seems to be an NDA preventing Cameron and the McGuigans from coming right out and telling everyone what happened between them when Cameron parted ways with the McGuigan’s Cyclone Promotions. This has led to speculation ranging from Cameron being sexually assaulted by someone at Cyclone, to failing on promised payments, to involvement with organized crime.
The real story is still a mystery - but Cameron has made it very clear that the presence of Ellie Scotney’s trainer Shane McGuigan would have been detrimental to her mental health to the point that she would not be able to give her best performance in the title fight. So whatever happened between Cameron and the McGuigan’s seems to be quite serious indeed.
Cameron said in 2019 at the time of the split from Cyclone Promotions:
“Basically, I don’t know where my boxing career is heading now because it is going for legal action and I’m restricted in what I can actually say. Basically I thought I was going to be leaving amicably as we had a meeting – they know the distress they have caused me and how emotional they have made me feel in my whole career by deliberately making me feel isolated, humiliated, and just deflated.
They had no time for a female boxer. I was supposed to be training five times a week – I never trained five times a week, I done all my training in Northampton. I was with Shane in London training three times a week.
My last fight was a four week camp and a lot of people noticed that my performance was terrible and not up to scratch to how I would usually perform. That was one of the reasons, the stress I’ve been going through in that team.”
Cameron added in the post that she has “been caused a lot of emotional stress and isolation from the team that was suppose to have my best interests and progress my career.
It’s unfortunate it’s ended this way but boxing is a lonely enough sport and nobody should be made to feel so small and intimated by anybody. The stress of chasing money along with trying to box at my best was just too much.” - Via Irish-Boxing.com
Shane McGuigan took to Twitter to comment on the situation:
Obviously it’s not a good look that several other fighters left Cyclone Promotions at the same time as Cameron, and there have been several disputes over financial issues in the past - namely a huge lawsuit in 2017 between Carl Frampton the the McGuigans. Financial reasons alone don’t seem like a reason to demand someone be removed from a fight card, but without more information we really can’t say.
Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing have yet to release any kind of official statement, but Eddie did appear on IFL TV’s YouTube channel to discuss a number of things, and gave his thoughts on the dispute. I found this rather disappointing - it doesn’t read as professional to me to talk about this publicly for the first time in such a nonchalant way on a random podcast - he really should have made an official statement first. It seems to me if this was a men’s title fight being pulled, it would have been a Big Deal and warranted - but I digress.
This video starts at the part where they discuss the Scotney/Johnson removal.
He basically says that both Cameron and Scotney’s statements are accurate, and the day of the press conference was the day Cameron found out that Scotney would be on the undercard and her team called Hearn with their concerns. Hearn called Scotney’s team and they were willing to do things like staying in a separate hotel to make it work, but ultimately Cameron’s team rejected that and Hearn had to tell Scotney she was off the card.
Hearn said he didn’t even stop to think about any past animosity between the two teams, and just thought it would be a good fight on the undercard.
I am just really sad for both Ellie Scotney and Cherneka Johnson - to lose the opportunity for a title fight and to be on what will probably be the biggest women’s fight card of 2023 is a big blow. Hearn has said that the fight will be rescheduled, but it’s unclear when and if it will be on a card with as good of a payday and viewership. It’s a massive fumble on Matchroom’s part and probably a blow to the relationship between Scotney and her promoter - while this definitely is the biggest night of Cameron’s career and she deserves the shot, it was going to be the biggest night of Scotney’s career too. That should definitely mean something.
What are your thoughts on this whole debacle? I would love to know.
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