Liam Cameron has been working with a sports psychologist, hoping to strengthen his already robust mindset ahead of his light-heavyweight encounter with Brad Rea.
Anyone familiar with the Yorkshireman’s story will know it has taken no small amount of grit and tenacity for him to reach this stage in his life, let alone his fighting career.
And, because of this, Cameron knows how vitally important it is to maintain a strong mindset, especially in a sport like boxing.
By employing a sports psychologist, the 35-year-old has been able to gain a fresh perspective on the fear factor that comes with his chosen profession.
And this, he tells Boxing News, has only enabled him to better understand his reasoning for being involved in the hardest of sports.
“As humans, we complicate things. Our mind gets carried away; we overthink everything.
“As boxers, we need to have the mindset of a surfer: We can’t predict what waves are coming, but we’ve got to ride the wave when it’s there. We can’t think, ‘Oh, this wave’s too big’.
“[The sports psychologist] sent me a video of [actor] Will Smith jumping out of a plane. No one’s forcing Will Smith to get into that plane – just like, in boxing, no one’s forcing us to fight.
“But all this fear builds up in our head and then, once we’ve jumped, the fear goes.
“So, [working with a mindset coach has] made me understand that I’m only boxing because I absolutely love it.”
While being reminded of his passion for the sport, Cameron is still riding the wave of his points victory over Troy Jones in November.
It was a somewhat debatable result, and perhaps not his greatest performance, but Cameron takes confidence from getting the job done with an injury.
“I took the fight on four weeks’ notice and had a really bad injury. Being the person I am, I thought, ‘There’s levels to this game. I can still beat this guy’.
“So I got in the ring while not being able to throw any power shots, or move my head, and I made it hard work for myself. But if I can do that while being properly injured, what am I going to be like now?
“It was a trapped nerve in my shoulder joint, but it was pulling on my neck. Not many people would’ve gone through a fight feeling like that.”
Indeed, Cameron is more capable than most when it comes to pushing through the pain barrier, even if it means producing a more workmanlike performance.
Having fully recovered from his injury, though, the former Commonwealth champion is now determined to showcase his technical prowess against Rea.
The pair will square off on May 9, featuring on the undercard of Fabio Wardley vs Daniel Dubois at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena, where Cameron expects to take full advantage of Rea’s supposed defensive flaws.
“In this camp, we’ve been doing a lot of southpaw sparring, because we know Brad likes to switch [stances].
“But I grew up in Sheffield, where fighters are often southpaws, so I actually prefer [fighting] southpaws.
“I think Brad’s got the heart of a lion when he boxes, but I think that makes him not as good as he should be. He just ends up swinging, because he wants to win so bad.”
Believing he is a level above, Cameron expects to come through Rea, a former European champion, in convincing fashion, but is nonetheless prepared for waves of all shapes and sizes.
