Chantelle

Great Britain’s Chantelle Reid and Damar Thomas will fight for gold at the European Boxing Championships after semi-final victories on Wednesday.

Reid defeated Serbia’s Milena Matovic 3-2 in her light-middleweight semi-final, while Thomas triumphed 5-0 over Azerbaijan’s Mahammad Abdullayev in the men’s super-heavyweight competition.

Team-mates Callum Makin and Dimeji Shittu are also guaranteed medals in the men’s middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions respectively after victories in their quarter-finals.

Reid, the Commonwealth Games silver medallist, was behind after the first round against Matovic, but she was the unanimous winner of the second and did enough in the third to seal victory at Asics Arena Sports Hall in Sofia, Bulgaria.

“It was a really good bout. She’s a really good girl and I hope we get to share the ring again one day,” said Reid.

“On to the next. Each bout’s gone better, each opponent’s gotten better and I’ll be boxing the best out of the weight category in two days’ time.”

The 28-year-old will face Busenaz Surmeneli in the final on Friday, after the Turkish boxer defeated Russia’s Nadezhda Golubeva 3-2.

Thomas, the 21-year-old Commonwealth gold medal winner, will face Russia’s David Surov in Friday’s final after the Russian also completed a 5-0 victory over Austria’s Ahmed Hagag.

Shittu, who had to settle for Commonwealth Games silver in August after a controversial defeat by India’s Ankush Panghal, made sure of a European medal with a 5-0 win against Austria’s Lucky Aimufua.

The 24-year-old will fight Russia’s Cheerav Ashalaev on Thursday for a place in the final.

“My first performance wasn’t the best, but that’s what I’m like, I go back to the drawing board and showed what I’m really capable of,” said Shittu.

“Credit to my opponent. He was game, he was strong, but ultimately skills paid the bills, booked me a place in the semi-finals and a guaranteed medal.

“Last time I brawled, now I want to show that I can box. And the end of the day it’s hit or not get hit. So I went out there, put on a show. Got the medal, let’s go change that colour.”

Makin, a bronze medallist at last year’s World Boxing Championships, won 3-2 against Armenia’s Marat Mikaelyan.

The 22-year-old will face Azerbaijan’s Saidjamshid Jafarov in Thursday’s semi-final.

The remainder of Great Britain’s fighters experienced defeat on Wednesday, with Lauren Mackie and Amy Broadhurst both losing in the quarter-finals.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mackie lost 5-0 to Lenka Bernadova of the Czech Republic in the women’s bantamweight division, while Broadhurst was beaten 4-1 by France’s Sthelyne Grosy in the women’s lightweight.

Abdul Burton also represents Britain on Thursday, facing Turkey’s Semih Gumus in the men’s super-bantamweight semi-finals.

He and Shittu compete in the session starting at 11:30 BST, while Makin’s bout with Jafarov is among the fights scheduled from 16:00.

Great Britain are guaranteed at least three medals at the European Boxing Championships in Bulgaria after Chantelle Reid, Damar Thomas and Abdul Burton reached the semi-finals.

Reid cruised to a 5-0 win over Ireland’s Evelyn Igharo in a women’s light-middleweight contest at the Asics Arena Sports Hall in Sofia.

The 28-year-old Commonwealth Games silver medallist will face Serbia’s Milena Matovic in the last four on Wednesday.

Thomas won by the same margin in a men’s super-heavyweight fight against Georgia’s Nikoloz Begadze and the 21-year-old will take on Mahammad Abdullayev of Azerbaijan in the semi-finals.

Burton, 20, beat home favourite and Olympic bronze medallist Javier Ibanez 3-2 to secure a meeting with Turkey’s Semih Gumus.

“Sometimes you have got to dig in and when things went against me I had to get stuck in and show who I was,” Burton said.

“I am young, hungry and here to take over.”

Lauren Mackie, Amy Broadhurst, Callum Makin and Oladimeji Shittu are all due in quarter-final action on Wednesday, but over half of Britain’s squad of 15 are now out.

On Tuesday, flyweight Ruby White was beaten 3-2 by Olympic silver medal winner Hatice Akbas of Turkey while Emily Asquith suffered a 5-0 defeat in her light-heavyweight bout with Ireland’s Lisa O’Rourke.

In the men’s heavyweight division, Commonwealth Games champion Isaac Okoh bowed out with a 3-0 defeat by Germany’s Kevin Lebowski.

Chantelle Cameron produced one of the finest displays of her career to beat Mikaela Mayer and add the WBA and WBC light middleweight titles to her WBO belt.

An engrossing encounter was narrowly won by the British fighter by unanimous decision – 97-93 on two scorecards and 96-94 on the other.

American Mayer disagreed with the decision, claiming she “outboxed” Cameron – leading to an angry exchange of words in the ring.

The possibility of a rematch was also floated, with Mayer also suggesting Cameron had benefited from home advantage – to the champion’s chagrin, as she said “talk is cheap”.

It means Cameron remains unbeaten since her second fight with Katie Taylor in 2023, and with 23 victories in 24 professional encounters.

And this was one of her best displays. These fighters were evenly matched in every metric – from punch rate to height and weight, even hairstyle.

But Cameron won out thanks to her unrelenting pressure, which never allowed the usually adaptable Mayer to figure out a winning gameplan.

Mayer was the more imposing figure early on, but Cameron played counterpuncher until she could get onto the front foot.

Cameron forced Mayer against the ropes in round four, and again at the start of the fifth. Increasingly confident to take the initiative, she was roared on by a partisan but disappointingly small home crowd.

Mayer was unable to get in behind her jab for long periods and was bleeding and breathing heavily by round six.

The home favourite was cut in the final rounds but pushed through and was lifted shoulder high by her team before her biggest win since beating Taylor in Dublin three years ago was announced.

For three-weight world champion Mayer, this is the third defeat of her 25-fight career and costs her the WBA and WBC belts, which Cameron now puts with her WBO title.

CHANTELLE Houghton says she still has a friendship with her ex Preston, two decades after their Big Brother romance.

The reality star was sent into Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 to trick her famous housemates into thinking she too was a star, and ended up falling in love with singer Preston.

They married later that year, but were divorced after ten months.

Now, Chantelle says that despite their failed union, she and Preston – real name Samuel Dylan Murray Preston – keep in touch to this day.

“We still message every now and then. I think he’s engaged to someone now,” said the star.

She continued to Betway: “We’re still friendly, there’s no bad blood. We didn’t have an awful falling out. Obviously, there were problems and a bit of animosity at the time, but no, I genuinely wish him well.

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“We’ve been through so much together that no one else will really understand. That friendship still matters.

“It’s good memories, and it’s something we did once in our lives. It was just a great experience.”

Whilst her relationship with Preston was very public, Chantelle has gone the opposite direction when it comes to her current relationship.

The star revealed she was in a relationship earlier this year, but didn’t divulge on who with.

Last month, it was revealed her man was local garden center owner Westley O’Bryan.

But she says the relationship will be kept private for now.

“Right now, I’m not sure whether I want to go public with my new man or keep it just for me. I’m living in the moment. I want to tell the world how amazing he is, of course I do, but for now, I’m keeping it to myself,” explained Chantelle.