From boxing's scrapheap to a title chance: Liam Cameron's story
Boxer Liam Cameron is a journalist's dream.
He competes in a sport frequently manipulated by exaggerated or fabricated stories featuring fighters and promoters who will do anything to grab the limelight.
But Sheffield's Cameron tale is unique. And, a week on Friday, he hopes to add another history-making chapter.
The Manor estate fighter is the athlete suspended from boxing after failing a drug test in 2018.
Disputing the findings, and deprived of the sport he grew up in, Liam went off the rails and found solace at the bottom of a bottle.
Last August, he returned to fight again, though, going on to win three bouts, two by unexpected first-round knockouts.
The eye-catching form - and possibly his back story - helped propel him back in the media spotlight and up the ratings and he is now hurtling towards the chance of a lifetime.
On June 21, in Bolton, he will be contesting the vacant WBA Inter-Continental Light Heavy belt with Lyndon Arthur, a former IBO World champion.
And it will be played out live on terrestrial TV.
Who knows what a win for such an underdog, on Channel 5, would mean for his next few fights?
"Yes, it's crazy what has happened in nine months" said Liam, the former Commonwealth champion who was out the game for more than five years.
He has boxed just eight rounds since April 2018 yet will suddenly become the centre of attraction.
"It is an unbelievable story and will be even more unbelievable if I win that title and I believe I can" he states, without a hint of arrogance.
"I've never been on Channel 5 before, but really, something like that doesn't matter to me, I don't think about it, when somebody is swinging at you, it's the last thing on your mind!"
The former ABA champion hopes 'King Arthur's' reign at, or near, the top is all but over.
"I don't want to be disrespectful but I have studied a lot of things, in his (second) fight with Anthony Yarde (2021) he looked really ripped, big and muscular, but now he doesn't look on it as much.
"I am hoping he has taken me lightly, that would give me an advantage."
Liam doesn't chose to undermine his own psychology by identifying as an underdog for the battle at the Whites Hotel, Bolton.
"All boxers go into a fight thinking they can win, even if they are an underdog" he says.
"You just go in there thinking one thing: 'I have got to win.'"
Liam admits Arthur seemingly has an advantage having been much more active, in recent times. But stamina won't be an issue, he says.
"I know I can do 10 rounds, I might not have done it for a while, but it is imbedded in you. Definitely, 100 per cent, he has the advantage of being more active, but that doesn't always work that way."
Arthur has a 70 per cent KO rate that deserves respect.
"He has a good jab and he sets you up for the right hand" Cameron acknowledged.
He stopped a lot of his opponents at the start of his pro career, but they were journeymen who were a lot smaller than him, he said.
The Sheffield United fan believes he is currently in the shape of his life.
So will this contest likely be his hardest fight to date - or was the 2016 date in Australia with Zac Dunn likely to top anything he'll ever encounter?
"I don't know. Lyndon fights behind his jab, he doesn't throw much, he will try to outbox you, he doesn't come at you like a madman.
"That might be harder to deal with mentally, you have to break a very defensive boxer down, he doesn't let you inside and whips big shots in to keep you off. I will have to stay switched on, know what is coming.
"But I am definitely looking forward to it."