It was cordial, until it wasn’t. Courteous, until it wasn’t. Captivating, already.

Mikaela Mayer and Chantelle Cameron need not marinate Saturday night’s main event with any further spice, but few will grumble over a new dimension to the rivalry.

Each had been complimentary of the other’s accolades, willingly acknowledging the elite talents of one another and mutually admiring the ease at which a rare pound-for-pound collision has come to fruition as they teased a fight-of-the-year contender.

But a subdued build-up exploded into life on Friday as the pair needed to be split by security after butting heads and trading insults at a surprise clash during their weigh-in.

This was not in the script, for either.

“I’ve had some heated build-ups before, but that’s only because it was just very genuine and authentic,” WBA and WBC champion Mayer had told Sky Sports, speaking ahead of the weigh-in. “I didn’t go looking for it. And Chantelle seems to be a pretty chill, down-to-earth person, so I don’t think she would even go there if she felt some type of way.”

WBO belt-holder Cameron, also in reference to their relaxed build-up, had added: “I think it shows we’re two great fighters. You don’t need all the trash talk and the bad blood. Just putting on a circus is not needed. We’re just two good fighters that are going to beat each other up.”

How it all changed.

Mayer vs Cameron – fighter records

Intentional or not, things would turn up a notch on the eve of their super-welterweight world title showdown in Birmingham. By the end Cameron had vowed to “smash her head in”.

Before now it loomed as a fight capable of selling itself based on resume, based on skillset and based on the magnitude of two greatness-bound fighters sharing the ring; Mayer arrives as a three-weight world champion, while Cameron has reigned in two weight classes and as the only woman to defeat the great Katie Taylor as a professional.

The closely-matched pair had prompted familiar fence-sitting among peers and pundits understandably struggling to forecast Saturday’s headline act.

“I know I believe in myself, she believes in herself and the exciting part about this is we genuinely both think that we’re better fighters,” said Mayer. “Now we get to go in there and prove it.

“I think it’s split in the public. Half the people think that Chantelle’s a better fighter, and half the people think that I’m the better fighter. So that’s what’s going to sell this fight.

“I know I’m going to win, but the public doesn’t. That’s what makes this exciting and intriguing.”

Among the themes to emerge this week has been Mayer’s insistence that it would be “impossible” for Cameron to train for this version of her, such has been the American’s self-proclaimed evolution alongside coach Kofi Jantuah over the last two years.

“As I’m shadowboxing I don’t even do the same combos anymore,” said Mayer. “It takes time for a coach to instil what he’s trying to show a fighter, especially an older fighter like me – I have to change habits.

“He’s really made me a better fighter. It’s been a 10-month lay-off, but not a lay-off, because I’ve been in the gym every day perfecting all that stuff that he’s trying to drill into me..

“I just seriously don’t think you can train for me because I’m not throwing the same stuff. I’m not moving the same way.”

Cameron, fighting at super-welterweight for the second time after April’s win over Michaela Kotaskova, has meanwhile cast doubt on how much growth there is left for Mayer at this stage in her career.

“I think that’s just insecurity speaking,” Cameron said. “She’s not going to change that much. That’s just doubting yourself and having to be insecure and speaking up for good hype. I don’t get too much into that.”

As far as storylines surrounding Cameron go, her victory over Taylor has been unsurprisingly heralded as a defining moment in her career.

The Northampton fighter defeated Taylor by majority decision in May 2023 to retain her undisputed super-lightweight champion status, before losing the rematch via the same outcome later in the year.

“Styles make fights and that’s yesterday’s news,” she said. “I’ve done it, I’m proud of it, but it’s yesterday’s news.

“I’ve moved on from that and now I’ve got another good opponent and I want to take the win on Saturday to say I beat another legend in boxing. I think that’s going to really cement my resume.

“I think this will be one of my best performances. I think the way my career’s been, it’s just perfect timing for me and I think it’s going to be the best performance of my career.”

Cameron has since won four fights on the bounce during her route to super-welterweight, where Mayer has greeted her with question marks over whether a Katie Taylor-level performance is still within her.

“It was an amazing fight. Even the second one where she didn’t get the decision, it’s still debatable, so for her to be the only person to beat Katie Taylor, that says something, that’s an accomplishment she should feel proud of,” said Mayer.

“But the way boxing, the way the sport is, you can’t stay over one win for too long. You’ve got someone else to handle.

“I think that was the best of her, though. I think that was probably the best weight. I don’t know if she has that same speed and aggression at this higher weight. I don’t see her moving the way she did against Katie Taylor in the first fight, and that’s what she needs to do to beat me, for sure.”

Ellie Scotney, who recently vacated her undisputed female super-bantamweight championship, suggested this week the winner of Saturday’s fight would enter the top four greatest female fighters of all time. MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian also echoed the notion that this weekend’s victor would enter GWOAT territory.

It beckons as a legacy bout between two fighters who have shrugged off turbulent moments to remain at the very top of the sport. Mayer endured defeats to both Alycia Baumgardner and Natasha Jonas that she maintains she should have won, while Cameron was denied the opportunity to settle the score with a trilogy fight against Taylor.

“Me and Cameron, there’s parts of our career that you can kind of compare and call similar,” said Mayer. “For us to be at such a high, to take a loss and then to feel that sort of backlash from the boxing community where it’s kind of like we did so much, and then we slipped a little bit, and it’s like we were unforgiven.

“It’s so hard in boxing to come back from things like that, so it takes time, and some people never do, but we’ve sort of navigated our way back, and now we’re meeting each other back at that height.

“It’s really scary because one of us is going to have to take that fall again.”

But who?

Watch Mikaela Mayer vs Chantelle Cameron this Saturday with Caroline Dubois also in action, live on Sky Sports. Get Sky Sports or stream boxing with no contract.

But it has been far more settled this term, with Zak Vyner, Hyam and Callum Doyle – Wrexham’s goal scorer in the loss to Birmingham – starting as the back three in all four of the Red Dragons’ game so far this season.

Parkinson even suggested transfer talk may have affected some of his players against Birmingham – particularly in the opening half.

“We will be endeavour to improve what we’ve got, but I think, a bit of uncertainty in the camp, players coming in, rumours of this and that,” Parkinson said.

“Has that affected us? I don’t know. It looked like it in the first half tonight because I just wanted to see more belief in us.”

Wrexham will be searching for answers ahead of their return to action at Millwall on Wednesday night (19:45 BST).

Defender Hyam says Wrexham may need to find a “horrible” streak to help rectify things at the back.

“We’re a talented group in there, we need to give ourselves a solid base to work off and that starts at the back,” added the Scotland centre-back.

“Us as defenders need to pride ourselves on being more solid at the back and just defending the goal.

“When we need to be, we need to be a bit horrible, we weren’t quite that tonight so that’s what it needs to be.”

Bradley Barcola is set sign a Liverpool contract to 2031 after the Premier League club reached agreement with PSG over the structure of the transfer.

Sky Sports reported on Friday that an agreement in principle had been reached for Barcola to move to Anfield in a package worth £120m.

The final discussions had centred over the structure of deal, with Liverpool now set to pay £106m up front and up to £17m in add-ons.

Documents must still be exchanged between the clubs and Barcola must complete a medical, which is expected to take place this weekend.

There had been a gap in valuation between the two clubs earlier in the summer, with PSG previously asking for around £145m for the France international, but the 23-year-old is now set to sign a five-year deal with Andoni Iraola’s side.

Barcola would become Liverpool’s second most expensive signing of all time, following the club-record deal to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle for £125m last summer.

Barcola’s arrival would potentially allow Cody Gakpo to leave Anfield, with Tottenham and Manchester City both interested in the Dutchman.

Liverpool are also trying to sign a second new winger, with their target currently Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr following difficult negotiations with Brighton for Yankuba Minteh.

More to follow.