As Liam Cameron waded through the deluge of social media messages he received in the wake of his April defeat to Ben Whittaker, one stood out more than the others.

Among the normal mix of good, bad and ugly correspondence that can be found within the inbox of any high-profile professional boxer at any one time, this one caught Cameron’s eye in particular.

“I was just looking through my messages then I saw this one from a mad account,” he tells The Ring. “I didn’t recognise the name, no profile picture or anything. I thought ‘bloody hell, here we go’.

“Then I opened it. It just said ‘don’t be down, Liam, after the fight. We want to sponsor you and help you out’. I thought I might as well find out what it’s all about.

“It turns out it was a woman who lives abroad and they’ve sponsored me for a whole year. They’ve helped me with accounting, how to buy a house, all of those things that we are never taught.

“At the time, they were just strangers but now we speak every day and they are really nice people, Kim and Steve. It’s mad because I’ve missed so many messages but that one stood out for some reason and I’m thankful I noticed it.”

If that sounds like an unlikely turn of events, it’s because it is, especially for Cameron who has toiled away for most of his professional career trying to secure any sponsors whatsoever. “I couldn’t get one at all,” he adds. “I had the odd people helping me out here and there but don’t forget in my career I’ve never, ever earned a penny.”

Cameron’s turn around from the brink of death to one of the most popular light-heavyweights in the country is already the stuff of legend in British boxing. He was slapped with a controversial four-year ban by the British Boxing Board of Control in 2018 when he tested positive for trace amounts of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine. He has always protested his innocence.

That decision floored Cameron, who spiralled into a pit of self loathing which included a diet of an entire bottle of gin daily. Of course by then he had retired from boxing and at his heaviest, the former middleweight weighed nearly 200 pounds. The turning point came when an overdose left him close to death in the back of an ambulance. He told himself that day that if he survived he would never drink again and he has stayed true to that word. He made his boxing comeback in October 2023 and has boxed five times since.

It is a story which has paved the way for widespread admiration from the boxing public, which explains the aforementioned helping hand from two strangers who live abroad. He won a swathe of new fans in his first fight against Ben Whittaker, which ended in a controversial technical draw in Riyadh last October, and despite a second-round stoppage in the rematch six months later, his life has changed beyond recognition.

“I just couldn’t get going in that second fight,” he adds. “I had a good fight in the first one, he had a good one in the second and that’s where the cookie crumbles really.

“I was so lucky to be in that position anyway and I’ll tell you the truth, my life has changed. I want to show people that when you think it’s over and you’ve got no will and you don’t think your life can ever get any better, if you work hard and believe in yourself anything is possible.

“When I think about everything, it’s like God’s been watching over me and I really do believe it. I know people disagree and don’t like to believe in stuff but how can I not?”

From his once precarious financial position, Cameron has now punched his way to owning his house outright, thanks in no small part to his two-fight series with Whittaker. In fact, the round-gate saga which had emerged during fight week ahead of their rematch provided an extremely significant boost to the bank balance too.

As reported by The Ring at the time, Cameron had signed a contract for 12 rounds but Whittaker’s said 10. Whittaker’s promoters Boxxer insisted it was a simple admin error but they were forced to pay Cameron compensation to change his end of the deal.

It is understood that Cameron’s initial fight purse was already three times his previous highest but that was elevated even further by the mix-up.

“Because of that round scandal I nearly doubled my money,” he reveals. “So from that point of view everything went perfect for me. And now I must say, I’ve got a nice space in my heart for Ben Whittaker.

“Regardless of how it’s been built or what has been said before, he will always have that space in my heart. I hope he becomes a multi-weight world champion and he makes millions.”

Whittaker is yet to box since getting his career back on track with his victory over Cameron and there is currently nothing scheduled for one of Britain’s most promising talents. Cameron, meanwhile, will get back on the horse on November 1 at Co-op Live Arena, Manchester on the undercard of Joshua Buatsi against Zach Parker.

He had been scheduled to face Mickey Ellison in a low-key eight-rounder but there has been a change of plans from Queensberry. Instead, he has been thrust into a far bigger test against the once-beaten Troy Jones, whose original opponent, Daniel Lapin, has withdrawn through injury. Rather than looking outside of the tent for a new opponent, Queensberry instead promoted Cameron to the 10-round domestic showdown.

“It was important for me to get back in business before the end of the year,” Cameron said.

“I bought my house and have been renovating it so that has taken time but I also needed a mental break after the Whittaker rematch fight week. It starched me, I was getting mobbed. They were coming at me in their 50s and I was like ‘whoa, I’ve never had this before’.

“It was really hard to handle. It was emotionally draining. I’ve never had it before, but I had to put my hood up to go to the shops. It was just crazy from as soon as I got to Birmingham. My manager Lee Eaton was having to fight people off of me. I was in Nandos on the Friday night and there were 20 people lined up for a picture.

“I’m very grateful for it though, 90 per cent of the people were there for me and it was a learning experience. Now I feel like there’s so much more to come and I want to make the most of this and give it all I’ve got.”