By Greg Robertson
When Monte Barrett hit the canvas after Shane “The Mountain Warrior” Cameron caught him flush on the chin last July, a couple of things ran out.
The first was the ref’s count to 10; the second was Danny Green’s ability to dodge a fight with Cameron.
At least, that’s what Cameron believes.
After ‘calling him out’ for two years, the planets have aligned to give Green not one, but two reasons to fight.
It was suddenly “financially good for him,” says Cameron. Promoters and fans were now eager to see the outcome between the former IBO title holder and the Kiwi with a thundering right hook; a boxer wanting to add the World Cruiser Weight belt to an already impressive collection.
A fight would also be a boomerang-trip back for the Australian to where he feels he belongs in the boxing world.
Cameron believes Green wants to leave a “legacy” and if the ‘Green Machine’ was to win the fight, then he’d be back on track after a career that appeared to be in ruins following the loss to 43-year-old American Antonio Tarver.
But after Tarver produced a positive drug test for steroids and the belt became vacant, the planets pointed to Melbourne, November 21.
“It’s a dream come true to fight for the Championship title,” says the 34-year-old boxer from Gisborne.
It’s “any fighters dream”.
“There’s a lot of fighters across all the divisions, that are good fighters, that never get the opportunity to fight for a world title,” says Cameron at a New Zealand media event today.
Although Green wasn’t present, Cameron didn’t take the upper hand in the trash-talk stakes.
“He’s a bit like me. He doesn’t like to do the trash talking,” says Cameron, explaining that a lack of back-street banter by no means signifies a lack of confidence from either corner.
“I feel like I’m going to knock him out. Put him to sleep.
“Very, very confident in taking care of Danny Green,” says Cameron, in the same breath adding: “I respect the man highly.”
And although on paper it may seem like a bigger fight for the Kiwi than it is for the 39-year-old from Perth, Cameron knows the pressure is also on his opponent to perform.
“He’s fighting someone who’s coming down from heavyweight. I’m not going to be as strong as I was but I feel like I’m going to be stronger than Danny.”
It’s taken Cameron 10 years as a pro to finally get his shot and training is well underway to shed the 5 kg before the weigh-in.
Cameron, the current Commonwealth Cruiser champion, made good point that this weight division isn’t the be-all-and-end-all for him.
“I’m certainly not counting out the heavy weights,” he says.
It is, however, one massive stepping stone to another world of pugilism that offers dreams of even grander scale.
Watch the video for the full media announcement.
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