By Greg Robertson
We all saw the results of his training – and Monte Barrett felt them.
So when Shane Cameron turned back to take another glance at Barrett lying on the canvas – just a wee check – he knew his regime for this fight had been spot on.
And this ran through his mind: “He’s not getting up”.
“I caught him with that right hand and I followed it up with a left hook… but I didn’t need that left hook,” Cameron says.
“I seen him go down… I seen his eyes.”
The crowd saw them too, rolled back in Barrett’s head with no idea where he was, as the Kiwi contingent ripped a roar that thundered through the air almost as powerful as the knock out punch.
The Mountain Warrior had learnt his lessons. For three years he’d been searching for some sort of redemption to take away the pain of Mystery Creek and a David Tua that had come out swinging and just didn’t stop until Cameron dropped.
He was a better fighter than that – and he says he knew it too. But he also says he “needed to prove it on that night”.
He’s made a believer out of Barrett, that's for sure.
There’s little doubt that Cameron puts the success down to preparation: Cross-fit training, sparring with a champion like Brit David Hayes and establishing a lethal combination at his “ideal” 97kg weight. Speed plus power: Result.
But he got a wake up call early from Hayes.
“He just took me apart,” Cameron says about the first sparring session. “But sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.”
Countless hours in the gym, analysing, sparring – the planets aligned – all taking the sushi-eating former farmer towards a goal he’d dreamed of.
He didn’t cut. He didn’t break the hand an eighth time. And now he can extend a finger and pick his next fight.
Tua is not getting a "leg up". Neither is the “green” Sonny Bill Williams.
But there will be a fight – soon.
“By the end of the year,” says the Mountain Warrior.
Watch the video for the full interview with Sports Tonight and find out Cameron's favourite sushi.
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