INSPIRATIONAL boxer Liam Cameron won his biggest fight of all by getting sober – after fearing he would die from an overdose.
Cameron was banned from boxing for four years in 2018 after testing positive for cocaine – sparking a battle with depression and substance abuse.
But after making a remarkable return to the ring in 2023, the super-middleweight is now one of Britain’s most adored fighters.
He told SunSport: “It’s unbelievable. I sometimes think people are trolling me in the back of my mind, I think it’s paranoia, I think, ‘Are they just saying it.’ Do you know what I mean?
“Like all this love – are they winding me up? Sometimes it’s hard to know it’s real.”
Cameron – inspired to box at just nine years old after being inspired by Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky franchise – had a successful amateur career.
He was even lined up to box America’s Errol Spence Jr for England – before instead turning professional in 2009 at 19.
But after nine years and 26 bouts, Cameron’s career was thrown into crisis when he was handed a controversial four-year ban for testing positive for cocaine.
It was extended by another 12 months after Cameron was caught training in a pro gym during his suspension – leaving him to turn to drink and drugs.
He said: “I was gutted. Then I’m quite adaptable, my mind just thought, ‘Do you know what, forget this. I can be a normal person. I’m gonna start going to a pub and that and living a normal life.’
“I took my boxing extreme into that extreme. Anything I do, I put my heart and soul into it.
“It happened slow, then fast. So I just went out having a couple of pints, loving it, liking that drunk feeling. Then you get offered substances.
“I never did it while I was sober or anything, but always when I were p****d out my brains and it just led to nonstop, couldn’t control it.
“I didn’t use to like anything then I ended up smoking 20 cigarettes a day as well, 20 a day I was smoking. As a kid I couldn’t stand the smell of smoke, I didn’t like drinking.
“So it’s possible for anyone to get on it if they’re going through a bad patch.”
Cameron thought his boxing career was done.
He started working odd jobs with mates for £50 but admitted: “I hated it. But it was work, I just did it.”
Cameron was hit with further devastation in 2020 when his stepdaughter Tiegan passed just two days before her 21st birthday.
The former Commonwealth middleweight champion’s life was spiralling out of control – and almost ended after he overdosed.
I can talk about it now I’ve come out of it and I’m successful now and I tell this story to inspire others.”
Liam Cameron
He said: “It was being in that hospital, I thought I was a goner. I just had a son as well. It just changed my way of thinking.
“It just wasn’t me. I was robbing 30 quid out my partner’s purse at night time without her knowing and stuff like that.
“I can talk about it now I’ve come out of it and I’m successful now and I tell this story to inspire others.”
Cameron vowed to turn his life around, for his sake and in honour of his late stepdaughter.
He began running and soon returned to Grant Smith’s Sheffield boxing gym – where he was told it was all or nothing.
Cameron said: “All lads in gym were saying, ‘You’ll never box, he’s too fat, too overweight, he’ll never get back in ring.’
“I thought, ‘How dare they say that about me, but they were probably right time because I were in a bad way, fat and all.
‘I was in so much debt’
“I just went down to the gym to see what they were doing. Grant come up to me and said, ‘Look, we’ve heard you want to come back, we’ll help you. But you can’t miss it one day.’
“I said yeah, but I thought, ‘I’m not going back. No way, the pressure of this.’ But I ended up going and I’ve been in the gym ever since.”
Cameron – who has a daughter called India and son Riley – returned after five years out in October 2023 – beating Robbie Connor at cruiserweight.
His inspirational comeback story caught the eyes of top promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren – who both offered him fights.
Cameron’s life and career really changed in October 2024 when he boxed Olympic silver medallist Ben Whittaker in Saudi Arabia.
But the bout ended in a majority-draw after just five rounds when the pair went over the top rope – with Whittaker unable to fight on.
Whittaker won the rematch in April – but Cameron was a winner outside of the ring with his story adored by fans and celebs across the world.
He gained nearly 50,000 Instagram followers – with magician Dynamo and ex-Premier League star Jermaine Defoe among his legion of new supporters.
Cameron said: “I’m just an average Joe off the street who’s put his dreams in reality and worked hard, done as I’m told, and this is what happens.
“You can have a bum life like I was doing and get nothing or change your ways, wake up, smell coffee and get on with it.”
Cameron had just £10 to his name at his lowest, unable to afford electricity in his house.
Now, he has purchased his first home where he lives with partner Tanya and their kids.
He beamed: “I was in so much debt because of substances and it kills me knowing that I got to that level, doing that.
“So I know if I can do it, anyone can do it. I bought this house, doing it up now, I got about a week left on it. And it’s my little mansion, it’s beautiful.”
Cameron returns to the ring on Saturday in Manchester against Troy Jones and said: “I just want to be my best version.
“If I can get that ring every time and give the best account myself and turn up and get out what I put in, what will be will be.”
