Instructor Shane Cameron

It is no coincidence that Shane Cameron is known as the Mountain Warrior, a name that represents both his past and his present.

Cameron was born in Wellington and raised in Tiniroto, a small farming community on the East Coast of the North Island. Already somewhat of a Mountain Warrior even then, growing up he spent all his spare time outside with his brothers hunting and exploring.

Cameron’s heritage is both Maori and European. His mother is of Rongomaiwahine descent and hailing from Mahia and he has a strong Scottish ancestry on his father’s side. That fiery Scottish blood came in handy as it was in fact Cameron’s paternal grandfather that first sparked his interest in boxing.

"My grandfather used to fight in the early 1930s and I’ve always liked listening to his stories. He was even boxing on the boat when he came over on from Scotland at the age of seven. He’d go running up hills at three in the morning, and sparring with no mouthguards, headgear, or proper gloves."

Unfortunately for Cameron in his small community there was no boxing club. Working on sheep stations in his teens, though the seed was sown by his grandfather he had never had the opportunity until he went on his OE to England at the age of 18, where he laced up, practiced hard and had his first amateur fight two years later.

A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH

Cameron won his first fight with a knock out in 1999. Discovering his passion for the sport, he continued to fight in England until 2001. During this time he was ranked as high number three in England at cruiser weight.

In 2001 the lure of representing his country brought Cameron home to trial for the 2002 Commonwealth Games team. As part of the step up to Commonwealth Games material, Cameron increased his weight and fought at the Games in the heavyweight division at 89kgs. Winning the national title, Cameron became the first and only heavy weight in 74 years to win the Jameson Belt, awarded to the most scientific fighter of the tournament. The final qualification for the Commonwealth Games team was to win an Oceania gold medal, which he did by winning three times in three days in Taupo.

The enthusiasm and dedication was paying off – Cameron was selected as the Captain of the New Zealand Boxing Team for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, where he defeated the first two opponents from Jamaica and Nigeria, but lost to a Canadian fighter to bring home a bronze medal. With such a string of successes, turning professional became inevitable as Cameron’s skills and reputation developed. The Mountain Warrior was born.

GOING PRO

Cameron made his professional debut in November 2002, with a third round knockout victory over Winston Palu. Over the last ten years Cameron has fought in New Zealand, Australia and America, winning 20 of his 21 professional fights, 18 of them by way of knock out. Cameron is currently living and training in Auckland.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS AND STATS

Cameron holds the following Title Belts:

• IBF Pan Pacific
• WBA Pan Africa
• NZ Heavy Weight Title

AWARDS

• Roger Izonritei – Fight of the Year IBF Pan Pacific 2006
• NZ Fight of the Year Roger Izonritei– 2006
• NZ Fight of the Year – Friday Ahunanya 2008

TOP 3 FIGHTS

"The highlight of my career so far was to spend two weeks in Arizona training and sparring with Mike Tyson, but these three fights were some of my most memorable…"

1. Kevin Montiy "Montiy sticks in my head as one of my most technical fights I’ve had. I outboxed and outsmarted the 6” 6 American. From round 1 catching him with some heavy body shots his hands started to drop which opened the door for some nice left hooks. The fight was stopped in the 5th round because of answered shots from Montiy."
2. Roger Izonritei – July 2006, Auckland "This was an incredible fight, one of the toughest I’ve ever had. Izonritei came well prepared for this fight. I knocked him down five times during the fight and won it with the final knock down in the tenth round. With the win, I secured the WBA Pan African Heavyweight title, as well as Izonritei's IBF Pan Pacific title."
3. Bob Mirovic "I broke my hand at the end of the first round catching Bob with an overhand right. Something had to give and it just happened to be my hand. It felt like my knuckle was pushed back into the middle of my hand, and it was swelling up. But there was no way I was going to lose to this guy. So in the 8th round I threw 3 lead body shots, he thought I was going to go back to the body with the 4th shot but instead I went up to the head with a left hook. The punch that knocks you out is the punch you do.