Katie Taylor sounds the Croke Park rallying cry after stunning world title win

The 37-year-old defied all the odds to avenge her only career loss when outpointing defending world super lightweight champion Chantelle Cameron after a terrific 10-round scrap at the 3Arena.

When the master of ceremonies David Diamante announced the result the noise level generated by the sell-out attendance of 9,000 surely exceeded the record 113.7 decibles reached for Katie’s Olympic debut against Natasha Jonas in London’s ExCel Centre in 2012.

The Bray Olympic champion triumphed on a majority verdict and deservingly so as she rolled back the years with a vintage performance to match her best ever.

“It was the longest six months in my life waiting for this rematch,” she said. “This is my real homecoming tonight. You saw the worst of me in May. You saw the best of me tonight. Let’s get the trilogy in Croke Park.

“It takes two to tango and Chantelle is a phenomenal fighter and a phenomenal champion, she deserves everything that she gets. To have a trilogy would be a great respect for both of us. I think that is exactly what we both want. She is a legend herself. Two legends of the ring fighting again for the trilogy. I don’t think there’s ever been a trilogy in women’s boxing. This could be the first.”

​Taylor is only the third fighter in modern times to become a two-weight undisputed world champion following in the footsteps of Evander Holyfield (cruiserweight and heavyweight) and double Olympic gold medallist Claressa Shields (welterweight and middleweight).

Cameron is the seventh world champion Taylor has defeated in her glittering seven-year career in pro boxing. But nothing she achieved in her 22-year long career matched tonight’s success.

For the first time ever, she was the underdog. She was giving away weight — maybe as much as 10 pounds — height and age (Cameron is 32) but she still produced the performance she had promised she would and that was sufficient to end Cameron’s 17-fight unbeaten run.

It is almost inevitable there will be another rematch and Eddie Hearn will have to attempt to make good on his promise to deliver Croke Park. Taylor-Cameron III deserve such a setting because in boxing terms it is the 21st century version of the Muhammad Ali/Joe Frazier trilogy.

Regardless of what happens now, Taylor’s status as the greatest female boxer of all time is assured and, indeed, it is not mere hyperbole to suggest she is one of the greatest boxers of all time.

She is too modest ever to say it, but one suspects proving the doubters, including yours truly, wrong gave her huge satisfaction.

Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ got the party underway as Katie Taylor broke new ground by making her ring walk first. Predictably Cameron was booed on her journey. There were no anthems and there were no belts in the Taylor corner.

Cameron was busy with her jab but Taylor looked sharp in the close exchanges, although she got caught and landed on the canvas for the first time in her career, but the judge ruled it a slip.

​There were furious exchanges at the start of the second as the contest showed all the signs of living up to its star building. The action never relented but Taylor had more success in escaping Cameron’s attempt to trap her on the ropes and she caught the champion on the jaw just as the bell sounded.

The crowd were on their feet in the third and chants of ‘Katie, Katie, Katie’ rang out as the Bray fighter came out best in a fierce exchange. There was no denying the fact she had made a better start than last May and by the end of the two minutes Cameron was bleeding from a cut on her forehead.

The referee stopped the contest momentarily at the start of the fourth round for Cameron to receive more attention to the deep gash on her forehead. Taylor kept driving forward and the body languages of the two suggested the home favourite was the more contented fighter. In the fifth Taylor began by beating Cameron to the punch, though Cameron had more success as the pace dropped slightly.

Into the second half of a thrilling contest Cameron looked slightly more comfortable, particularly in the close exchanges and complained to the referee that Taylor was holding. The contest came slightly more ragged at the start of round seven with both fighters finding their range.

The referee cautioned Taylor about holding in round eight and the two protagonists just stood in the centre and exchanged body shots. Taylor looked tired with four minutes remaining.

Cameron’s face bore all the hallmarks of being through a war and Taylor continued her relentless forward drive and landed the scoring punches, though Cameron finished the round stronger.

Chants of ‘Katie, Katie, Katie’ again reverberated around the arena as the final two minutes of action got underway. She looked to have done enough to unseat the champion, but everything depended on the how the judges read the fight. Regardless of the result it was a magnificent performance from the 37-year-old Taylor.

And the judges agreed with Jan Christensen (Denmark) scoring the fight 98-92 in her favour; Steve Morrow (USA) gave her the verdict on a 96-94 score while Feren Budai (Hungary) scored the fight a draw 95-95.

“Whoever wrote me off, they obviously don’t know me very well,” she said. “I was nearly upset that I was the underdog going into this fight. Don’t ever doubt me!”

Earlier, Kildare’s Gary Cully relaunched his career with a split 2-1 win over Doncaster lightweight Reece Mould. He secured the WBA lightweight continental European lightweight title which Mould has held but the Naas fighter was below his best despite the verdict of the judges.