Cameron hoping to convince the doubters

OPINION: Shane Cameron's manager Ken Reinsfield has warned anyone who writes his fighter off that they are underestimating Cameron's ability to bounce back, writes Logan Savory in this week's Sav's Say.

The 34-year-old has also vowed to the boxing public he still plans to show everyone what he has got after taking a pummelling by the powerful David Tua late last year.

I respect any sportsperson who when the chips are down bounces back and never give up on their dream of being a champ.

This is what Cameron is doing. However, forgive me for thinking it, in the coming years he is going to fade into the distance.

He will drift into the distance as a boxer people remember as being a good fighter but far from being a great fighter.

Tua, through a flurry of punches in Hamilton, went a long way to ending Cameron's quest to crack the big time one day in the United States.

Cameron is not the only fighter to taste the canvas when they've gone face to face with Tua but it still isn't shaping up that well for him.

The scheduling of his next fight probably gives away just where Cameron's confidence is at following that black night in Hamilton last year.

In Melbourne on March 17 the likeable former Gisborne shepherd will square off against former NRL bad boy John Hopoate.

Talk about rebuilding his empire from the ground up.

Hopoate is far from any sort of boxing powerhouse, and that was hammered home on the undercard to the Tua-Cameron bout when he was knocked out by Australian journeyman Colin Wilson.

The only thing Cameron could possibly draw from a fight with Hopoate is some much-needed confidence.

This alone is likely to be the reason behind his team organising the fight.

Anything but a good win won't be enough for Cameron if he wants to convince the doubters he still has the potential to be a big name in the sport.

A loss to Hopoate would almost certainly end any meaningful boxing career Cameron still wishes for.

As New Zealanders, I'm sure we would all love to see Cameron bounce back by silencing the big-mouthed Hopoate, but it is what he does after that that will determine just how he rates in years to come.

Cameron is believed to be in negotiations for s second comeback fight in April, and that almost certainly needs to be against a fighter who has some sort of respect in the game.

» Logan Savory is a former Southland cricket representative who was named New Zealand junior sportswriter of the year at the 2007 TP McLean journalism awards. His main rounds are cricket and rugby.

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