Shane Cameron had few problems with Australia's Colin Wilson in April but now the right-hander's plans have been hampered by injury. Picture / Fotopress

Shane Cameron had few problems with Australia's Colin Wilson in April but now the right-hander's plans have been hampered by injury. Picture / Fotopress

Shane Cameron's groin injury is proof, as if he needed any, that the path to heavyweight stardom has its share of tripwires. Certainly, that might be why David Tua won't spar with his old stablemate - there's too much at stake, too much to lose.

"I don't know whether he doesn't want to or if he's just doing his own thing," Cameron said. "We don't need to spar with each other. It's not like there's a bad conflict between the both of us. But we don't phone each other and talk about the weather. We just do our own things."

And that's what Cameron was doing when he strained his problematic groin doing some explosive sprint work at Ericsson Stadium on Thursday - ending his planned fight against Perth-based Nigerian Roger Izonritei in Florida next weekend.

Cameron's manager Don Mann said the Poverty Bay-raised heavyweight would now fight in Las Vegas in the first weekend of October, with an opponent to be announced.

Although the 27-year-old's estimated world ranking is in the top 50 and he is unbeaten in his 12 professional fights, it's his out-of-ring exploits that set him apart.

He was one of the last men to spar with Mike Tyson before the former heavyweight champion's bizarre retirement last month, when he sat down against Irishman Kevin McBride.

What did Cameron do to the man? "I don't know but I got a lot more confidence out of that. I held my own, I didn't look silly. After the first spar, I got a lot more respect. He had good things to say about me. Before that he didn't really respect me. I was a nobody. But I went toe-to-toe with him. I caught him with some good shots - mainly upper-cuts and hooks - but he caught me too.

"The sparring was a lot harder than he fought. He was trying to knock me out from the start. He rushed me. That's why I was surprised when he came out for the fight - he was trying to box the guy rather than knock his block off."

There was no indication Tyson was planning to quit. "He was talking about the fights after that one."

Back in New Zealand, Cameron's training still includes his first great love - pig-hunting. His last foray was into the bush southeast of Auckland six weeks ago.

He says ominously of his opponents, "They wouldn't have faced what I've faced", before admitting wild boars won't attack unless cornered. His biggest pig was 100kg.