Boxing: Cameron to spar with Haye

Shane Cameron is to spar with former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye in preparation for his July 5 bout with Monte Barrett. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

Shane Cameron is to spar with former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye in preparation for his July 5 bout with Monte Barrett.

Cameron and his entourage depart for London on Friday for a two-and-a-half-week camp.

Haye is in training for what will be a highly-charged bout against fellow Britain Dereck Chisora at West Ham's Upton Park on July 15. Cameron's manager Ken Reinsfield said the Haye camp view Cameron as a perfect sparring partner. Haye also Ko'd Barrett in five rounds in late 2008, so can provide Cameron with some useful insight.

"It is perfect timing,'' Reinsfield said. "Luck hasn't gone our way in the past but this time it has. It has worked out really well.''

Cameron won't return to New Zealand until just over a week before his bout with Barrett at Auckland's Sky City, however Reinsfield said he was keen to maximise the time training with Haye.

"It's just like when Shane sparred Mike Tyson, it's an opportunity to test yourself against one of the best on the planet,'' Reinsfield said.

"Although it is not in a fight it is the next best thing.''

"The Haye camp aren't silly people. They realise that Shane is fighting Barrett. They can
see that he wants good preparation and they obviously want good sparring themselves. And they are not just getting a sparring partner, they are getting a guy who is preparing for a fight, not someone who is just going to bounce around the ring and be a mobile punching bag.

"They wouldn't be bringing Shane all the way over there if that is what they wanted because that is not what they are going to get.''

Haye's last bout was a unanimous 12-round defeat by Wladimir Kitchsko in a heavyweight title unification fight July last year. He was knocked down in the 11th round
and heavily criticised for a lacklustre effort, later claiming he was hampered by a toe injury suffered in training.

His fight against Chisora is a highly-anticipated affair after the pair clashed violently at the press conference following Chisora's defeat by Vitali Kitchsko in Germany four months ago. Haye and Chisora traded punches, with Chisora claiming Haye had "bottled'' him.

"I swear to god David, I'm going to f****** shoot you,'' Chisora could be heard saying during the incident. "I'm going to shoot David Haye. Listen. I'm going to physically shoot David Haye."

A recent pre-fight press conference was staged with the fighters separated by a metal
fence.

Reinsfield said he wasn't worried Cameron would become caught up in the Haye-Chisora
circus, describing it as pre-fight "showbizz''.