Steve Deane: Cheap talk costs Cameron dearly

David Tua sends Shane Cameron crashing into the ropes during Saturday's 'Fight of the Century' in Hamilton. Photo / Dean Purcell

Talk is often cheap. But it can also be costly.

On Saturday night it was very nearly both for Shane Cameron.

A ferocious assault by David Tua saw the Mountain Warrior's bold pre-fight talk exposed as penny-ante waffle. On paper the fight looked a complete mismatch, and so it proved in the ring. Inside 30 seconds it was obvious Cameron didn't possess the skills to keep a super-fit, super-motivated Tua at bay. A big punch would land sooner rather than later.

The only thing that could have saved Cameron was a granite jaw - which he doesn't have.

Tua exists on a different boxing plane from the brave but limited Cameron. Always has, always will.

The relentless talking themselves up from Team Cameron almost managed to obscure that now blindingly obvious fact.

In the end, Cameron's cheap talk could have cost him the ultimate price.

That the fight was allowed to go on into the second round was a disgrace. It opened up the possibility of the one thing occurring that no one wanted to see - someone being badly hurt. The first telling Tua blow that crashed through Cameron's inadequate defences took away his legs and deprived him of his senses. Anyone could see that.

Anyone but, it seemed, the third man in the ring. Referee Bruce McTavish is vastly experienced and has a stellar reputation, but he looked bewildered and out of his depth.

His count, if you can call it that, for the second stoppage was a mockery.

He reportedly thought he'd heard the bell. But the only bells going off were in Cameron's head. McTavish's dallying was almost certainly just plain incompetence, but it raised suspicions his motivation may have been to ensure the baying crowd of over 7000 and the thousands of pay-per-view customers got as much bang for their buck as possible.

Either way, his main job was to protect the fighters and in that he failed. Cameron took a dozen unanswered, undefended and unnecessary blows to the head as he was brutally smashed to the canvas in just seven seconds of the second round.

Cameron's corner-men also bear some responsibility, although their decision to send their man back out is more understandable. Cameron is a tough, proud guy; he had trained hard, he deserved every chance. It would have taken a hardy soul to condemn him to an early defeat. Cameron was brave, it's a shame it didn't rub off on those around him.

Wounded pride is one thing, inviting serious head trauma quite another.

Hopefully Cameron isn't too scarred by his battering. Somewhat ironically, the defeat probably won't have harmed his career too much. His all-action style will always have box-office appeal. And potential opponents, particularly those on the way up or the way back, will now be viewing him as someone who will put up a good show but can certainly be beaten.

There should be more decent paydays in Cameron's future. But as for a world-title fight, forget it.

It's hard not to think the plucky Gisbornite brought his spectacular downfall upon himself. He taunted Tua for being too fat, too slow, too lazy and too old.

"I saw you fight Lennox Lewis and you took a hiding, man," was one line.

No, he didn't, Shane. He was out-boxed by one of the best heavyweights in history. A hiding was what you copped on Saturday night.

Cameron had 500,000 reasons not to let the sleeping dog lie, but there have got to be easier ways of making money.

Tua is a study in contradiction. A lovely bloke in that uniquely Polynesian way, he is capable of almost unimaginable brutality.

The sight of the victor putting his arm around the vanquished Cameron, trying to comfort him as he slumped dazed against the ropes, pretty much summed up Tua.

He hits with bad intentions, but those intentions quickly fade.

His trainer Roger Bloodworth has handled the best of the best, but he rates Tua in a different league when it comes to punching power. The only comparison he could make was with a young Mike Tyson.

But with the Baddest Man on the Planet the flame burned out, while Tua can still summon the demon within.

Is he good enough - and big enough - to take a world title off one of the brigade of giant Russians? Possibly not. But he is good enough to earn another shot.