Boxing: Warriors' backers step into the ring

By PETER JESSUP

Cullen Sports has announced its first run off the football field - an evening of boxing at the Sky City Casino which will be heavyweight both in and out of the ring.

Shane Cameron, who was attached to the David Tua team and had a brief foray in the United States, will star on a five-fight card on June 5 that will be attended by Warriors and Cullen bosses Eric Watson and Mark Hotchin and 498 other corporate guests.

The show, and Cameron's next five fights at the same venue, will be broadcast by TV3.

The event follows a meeting between the Manchester Commonwealth Games bronze medal-winning boxer Danny Codling and Warriors CEO Mick Watson in an Auckland supermarket.

Mick Watson, who had met Codling previously at the Tua-Hasim Rahman fight in US, was looking to bring in some cross-training expertise to the league team and Codling and Cameron had since quit the Tua camp.

Codling soon took over from Lance Revill as the Warriors' boxing trainer and, not long after, Cameron started using the club gym and signed a management contract with Cullen Sports.

The organisation was realistic about Cameron's chances, said boxing manager Don Mann. It would give him some opportunities and see if he could push on to a regional title.

It should stay realistic. Cameron had 48 amateur fights, also won bronze at Manchester and has won all six bouts he's had since turning pro after the Commonwealth Games.

But while tough and with some power, he is no great talent. He would not beat the best Australians. Suspicion remains that he's too small for a heavyweight and going from 93kg when he joined the Warriors' setup to 103kg now is unlikely to have improved his speed.

It will be Cameron's second fight with Codling as trainer after a round-two technical knockout of Richard Kemp on the Anthony Mundine undercard in Wollongong in January.

Cameron has Johnny Lewis, Australian trainer of Jeff Fenech and Kosta Tszyu, as an adviser.

Lewis recommended Cameron's opponent for the contest next Saturday, Brazilian Gilberto Melo, who with a career record of 5-3 should not be too great a threat over six three-minute rounds.

Paula Mataele, who has been sparring with Cameron, is another boxer on the card with a question mark hanging over him after he failed to make the best of his amateur chances via the Commonwealth Games then turned pro, where he has a five-from-five record.

At 198cm and 115kg Mataele is described as looking like Lennox Lewis. But one fight fan at yesterday's press conference added the footnote, "Fights more like Jerry Lewis". Mataele fights Aussie Paul Robinson, who also boasts a no-highlight record of won 2 lost 3. A four two-minute round fight-time in this bout will ensure furious action from the start.