PRIDE once more came before a fall on Saturday night with David Tua’s ruthless execution of heavyweight boxing pretender Shane Cameron.
Cameron’s camp talked the talk. But it was Manukau’s Tua who walked the walk in using the Gisborne fighter as his chopping block before 7000 Mystery Creek fans.
Decked twice in the first round by Tua’s ferocious punches, Cameron slumped to the canvas seven seconds into the second after a 15-punch barrage that left him senseless.
At 37, going on 38, it was a slimmed down 107kg Tua back to his best against a gutsy but foolish opponent who had gambled Tua was only a shadow of the man who once beat world class fighters John Ruiz, Hasim Rahman and Michael Moorer.
Ruiz was destroyed in 19 seconds and former world light-heavyweight champ Moorer was gone within 30. That was seven years ago before Tua’s bust up with former managers Kevin Barry and Martin Pugh and the legal hassles that followed.
In taunting Tua about being too fat, too old and too slow, Cameron unwittingly fed a proud Tua’s determination to prove him wrong.
He did so in emphatic fashion, in not only unleashing his feared left hook, but a right cross that connected with Cameron’s chin too often for comfort.
Only former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and scientific southpaw Chris Byrd have comprehensively out-pointed Tua, who has never been knocked down in almost 50 professional fights and whose punching power was once rated alongside that of Mike Tyson.
While Cameron was not an opponent worthy of Tua’s mettle, at least he got the same $500,000 purse to help him overcome the pain.
Having sacrificed the junk food to get his body back in shape, Tua can now pursue his dream of having another crack at a world title, probably against one of Ukraine’s Klitschko brothers.
Like Lewis before them, they’re giants who dwarf the New Zealand Samoan. But given his devastating punching power and return to form, Tua’s a David still capable of slaying Goliaths, especially with a trainer as smart as Roger Bloodworth in his corner.
Meanwhile, 30-year-old Duco promoter David Higgins is eager to stage a December rematch in Auckland between Tua and Rahman, who once knocked out Lewis before the Englishman regained his world title.
However, there are a few hiccups that need to be resolved first, including a three-fight deal with Maori Television that reputedly offers Tua peanuts compared with his true pulling power now he’s whipped his body back into shape.
Having confounded critics who feared his inactivity would have left him ring rusty, it’s important he stays fit and active. If he does, there’s plenty of gold at the end of the rainbow for a nice guy former hotel dishwasher who still believes a world heavyweight title is his destiny.
Meanwhile, Melbourne Storm assistant coach Steve Kearney must be a happy man following his team’s 23-16 NRL grand final triumph against the Parramatta Eels before 82,000 spectators at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium on Sunday.
While Storm fullback Billy Slater won the Dally Messenger man-of-the-match title with another classy display it could just as easily have gone to team-mate Adam Blair, or better still, the Eels’ Fuifui Moimoi.
All three were among the try-scorers, with Kiwis battering ram Moimoi putting the Eels within striking distance before Greg Inglis’ converted try and field goal clinched victory for the Storm.
