By James Slater: David Haye and Shane Cameron each have a big, must-win fight coming up: Haye against fellow Brit Dereck Chisora, New Zealand’s Shane Cameron against former Haye victim Monte Barrett. And, in what both teams feel will be great preparation, Haye has paid for Cameron to fly over this Friday for three weeks of hard sparring.
Cameron is not the biggest heavyweight at 6’2” and approx 228, (when he’s a heavyweight and not boxing down at cruiser) so Haye clearly feels “The Mountain Warrior” will be able to imitate Chisora, no giant of a man himself, pretty well. Cameron is excited about working with Haye, and he is pumped up for his July 5th showdown with Barrett, AKO “Two Gunz,” and he says he is not coming to the U.K just for the money the sparring will bring in.
“They were looking for a sparring partner. They know that Shane is a tough guy,” Cameron’s manager, Ken Reinsfield told Fairfax Media. “It’s win-win for the Haye camp and us. Shane gets paid a sparring fee. But we’re not going up there for the money. We are going for ideal preparation. It’s spectacular sparring. You’re talking about a former WBA heavyweight championand contender who is trying to eye up Vitali Klitschko for a title shot.
“Haye said he would help with any advice on fighting Barret so that’s great.”
As fans may recall, Haye stopped Barrett, in his second fight up at heavyweight, back in November of 2008. Now Cameron who, in his biggest fight thus far, was stopped by the now-retired David Tua, aims to beat Barrett and move onto something bigger. As for Haye “eyeing up Vitali for a title shot,” this fight does not look in any way likely. As has been reported, Vitali will face the little-known Manuel Charr on September 1st, and is then widely expected to retire from boxing and head into politics.
With this in mind, it’s a wonder what Haye’s motivation for beating Chisora is. Sure, Haye would like to silence “Del Boy,” a man who has gotten under his skin and who has taunted him publicly, but Haye was hoping a big win would lead him to another heavyweight title shot.
Maybe Haye will aim for “regular” WBA heavyweight titlist Alexander Povetkin, who is set to defend against former world champ Hasim Rahman on the July 14th London show. Wladimir Klitschko, the undisputed world number-one, has certainly made it clear he will not fight Haye for a second time. And why should he?