Strange things can happen in a boxing ring.

Who knows what went through Steve McCarthy’s mind when Tony Wilson’s mother entered the ring too to hit him with a shoe?

Or what Evander Holyfield was thinking when a parachutist collided with the ropes behind Riddick Bowe?

Ben Whittaker and Liam Cameron didn’t know what to think when, in the fifth round of their first fight, all of a sudden they found themselves upside down, airborne, falling headlong into the ring apron in an ugly tangle.

“They way it happened it was that quick. I didn’t even feel the ropes if I’m honest, it was that slack and the next thing you know I’m on the floor,” Whittaker told Sky Sports.

Cameron had advanced, pressing into Whittaker as the Olympic silver medallist backed up towards the ropes.

Cameron isn’t sure how they fell. “He pulled back. You can see it on the screen. Definitely pulled back, his head goes back before he goes over the ropes. It was a shock. I fell too and I fell on my head,” he told Sky Sports.

“I couldn’t control myself because he had my arms tucked away. I actually couldn’t put my hands down because they were being held by him. It happened so fast, one minute we were boxing, the next minute we went over the ropes.”

Whittaker scoffs at the idea that he somehow heaved both of them out of the ring deliberately.

“It was a madness,” he said. “When you look back, the ropes were down, my neck was on the floor. It was weird. But people always come out with these silly phrases, ‘oh he did this, did that.’ I say you get in there and you give it a go then.

“At the end of the day I’m a professional, I’ll come back and do what I have to do professionally.”

Whittaker and Cameron will rematch on Sunday at the bp pulse LIVE arena in Birmingham, live on Sky Sports.

After the ring fall in the first fight, Cameron did manage to clamber back through the ropes in order to continue boxing. But Whittaker stayed down. He has been heavily criticised since, not least by Cameron, for not carrying on. But Whittaker was injured.

“I’m kind of blessed it was only my ankle because it could have been a lot worse. It could have maybe been lifechanging, the way I landed on my neck at the start,” Whittaker said.

“I could have probably not been boxing again. So for me I’m happy I got through just with that. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again and we have to have a trilogy. That would be typical!”

It was the ankle injury that was the real problem for him. “Because I’ve had previous injuries before they were worried about those but it was actually my ankle,” Whittaker said.

“Did the rehab, did what I had to do and we moved on from there and it’s strong now.”

With Whittaker unable to continue, the bout went to a technical decision based on the rounds that had elapsed and was scored a draw.

Cameron however was adamant he deserved more.

“It felt weird because I was still having the emotion of a fight and I’m thinking is it on, is it off? For me it took forever for them to make a decision,” he recalled.

“You could have argued he had two rounds, the rest to me. I had a look at him first round, he tried to give me everything. He outworked me the first round, but I let him.

“[At the end] I was thinking what’s going on? Have I won? I was thinking I’ve got to have won. And they read draw and I thought wow.”

Cameron maintains that Whittaker was feeling under pressure from early on in that first fight.

“He was very tired from round two or three. And I can remember thinking is this a bluff or what? It was that obvious. I thought I’m not going to put it on him yet and then he was struggling,” the Sheffield fighter said.

“Making noises, pushing his shots out and there was nothing in them and I was thinking he’s [exhausted]. A couple of rounds after, we somersaulted over the ropes.”

Whittaker is determined to settle the score when they rematch on Sunday.

“That’s the funny thing about it. A lot of people are making Liam something that he isn’t,” Whittaker insisted.

“What did he actually do to make him talked about? The thing that made him talked about was the end result, flying over the ropes.

“People saw me and out of 10 I was probably a one or two in the ring. I still think he was struggling with that,” Whittaker added.

“For me a 10/10 or an 8/10 Ben is a completely different job in there.”

Lucky draw?

Former world title challenger and Sky Sports boxing expert Matt Macklin said: “At the time I had the fight level.”

But he added: “The pattern of the fight, the run of play as they say in football, wasn’t going Whittaker’s way, Cameron was getting on top. It was one of those freak incidents where they have both gone over the rope, and I don’t know how anybody could possibly know how he felt and if he hurt his back or not. You’ve got all these people who are body language experts now!

“These things can happen in a ring, I don’t think he tried to pull him over the rope. I just think he was leaned on, he leant back, and the bodyweight and momentum has pushed them both over. I don’t think it was pre-orchestrated. I think people who are insinuating that it was are off their rockers!

“I don’t know how anyone could possibly know how he felt. I’ve seen it as much as anyone, I can’t tell you if he’s hurt his back or is in pain. I think it probably worked out for him that it happened because the fight was starting to unravel a bit and Cameron was definitely on top and getting more on top.

“That said, he didn’t try to make it happen, the incident just happened. He couldn’t do that again – he couldn’t do that if he tried!

“I don’t know whether he was injured or not, but I’d say there was a very good chance he was after falling in that way.

“After the performance, I think he’s aware he probably got away with the draw. Whether he will ever say that publicly, who knows, but deep down he knows he got away with it.”

Watch Ben Whittaker vs Liam Cameron 2 on Sunday live on Sky Sports.