Short and no sweet nothings

OPINION: Fleeting fight fans might have felt a little hard done by when Shane Cameron slumped to the mat seconds into the second round against David Tua on Saturday night, writes Nathan Burdon in this week's Straight Up.

I was absolutely thrilled by the brutal nature of Tua's victory.

Would you rather have a 12-round borefest with two fighters leaning on each other and whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears (or worse if it's a Tyson fight)?

Tua's power was, if you'll excuse the word, awesome. A lot of credit needs to go to his trainer Lee Parore for being able to get the weight off him but retain, or even improve on, his hitting ability.

For me, the fight was over early in the first round when Tua hit Cameron with a left to the head.

It was mistimed and more of a glancing blow but it was obvious that Cameron was shocked by the power of a dud punch.

From that point on it was plain that Cameron knew that he had no answer for the game that Tua had brought to Mystery Creek.

Tua's drive was something to behold. He apparently was sleeping on a mattress in his training ring in the lead-up to the fight. We saw it when Tua was throwing those punches at a prone Cameron.

It could have cost him the fight with a disqualification but the referee seemed to have been caught up in the occasion and was unwilling to stop a fight that had so much emotion attached to it.

Cameron's future must now be uncertain. He has the potential to sink firmly into the realm of the journeyman. There doesn't appear to be much about him that stirs the blood. His camp obviously wanted him to talk things up before the fight but all that achieved was to make Tua more determined and to make him look like the bad guy among the undecideds.

Tua, on the other hand, was so dominant he might have revived his career, despite being closer to 40 than 30.

Anyone who enjoys boxing can appreciate a knockout boxer and that's what Tua is. He was also impressively humble and down to earth after the fight.

He spent plenty of time praising Cameron and endeared himself to the public when he said his next move was going to be to Burger King.

We love our champions when they are winning but we love them even more when they still look like one of us.

» Nathan Burdon has been the Southland Times sports editor since 2003 and has won numerous journalism awards, including provincial sports writer of the year.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Newest First

Oldest First