Michaela Kotaskova is fighting one of her sources of inspiration when on Sunday she and Chantelle Cameron contest the vacant WBO junior-middleweight title.
The Czech recognises that at London’s Olympia, on the undercard of Caroline Dubois-Terri Harper, she is entering her toughest fight – which is the first in the UK between two women for a world title over the course of three-minute rounds.
Kotaskova – like Cameron, 34 years old – revealed that she continues to “look up to” Cameron as one of the finest five female fighters in the world, but as the naturally bigger of the two believes that she possesses a physical advantage, and therefore expects Cameron to be challenged by the prospect of fighting up to 10 threes.
“In the world there’s maybe five women boxers I look up to – she’s one of them, because she achieved a great thing with her win against Katie Taylor, who’s also in the top five,” Kotaskova told BoxingScene. “She’s great.
“But the weight class fits more to my boxing style; my physique, and I have a chance to win. She’s definitely the best opponent I’ve ever had.
“I don’t think that the weight is the main thing in the three-minute rounds. She needs to change the pace, I think. She cannot over-pace, and the punches she’ll have to defend takes a lot of energy, which she maybe doesn’t know [if she has] yet. Let’s see.
“She has very good stamina. Three-minute rounds are not going to be a problem for her [if she paces herself appropriately]. She’s well prepared. The quantity of punches is very high. We have to work very clever. But the pace is gonna be high.
“She’s a universal kind of boxer. She can fight at long distance; she can fight with body punches. My strategy is don’t let her make the fight – I will do my thing, and I think she could have a little trouble with the weight. I’m physically better prepared. But she’s a very tough opponent. She’s very clever; it’s gonna be very tough.”
Kotaskova is established at welterweight – the weight division above which Cameron first beat and then lost to Taylor – and she said: “It’s very difficult to find sparring partners, because the girls I used to train with fight two-minute [rounds] so I cannot do three minutes with them because they cannot do this pace for three minutes. So I did 90 per cent of the sparring with men, which is a great thing for me.
“I did it very well, and it gave me a good feeling for this fight, because I don’t think a woman can be stronger than men in my weight class. So, for my mental preparation, it was very good.”
