Boxing: Winner will fight for world title – promoters

US boxing promoter Samson Lewkawic is confident Shane Cameron will fight for a world title next year. Photo / Getty Images

Shane Cameron will get a shot at a world heavyweight title next year if he beats David Tua this weekend, a United States-based boxing matchmaker said today.

Samson Lewkawic, who is affiliated to the Cameron camp, said he has shown in the past that he could make "the impossible possible".

"I can tell you that Shane Cameron will fight for a world title in 2010," he told journalists in Auckland.

Cameron and Tua are set to square off in Hamilton on Saturday night.

Tua, 37, also has his sights set on a world crown, having lost in a unanimous points decision in 2000 to then defending champion Lennox Lewis of Britain.

He is the TAB's favourite to emerge victorious at Mystery Creek, despite not having fought for two years.

Lewkawic believed that whoever won "New Zealand's Fight of the Century" would become "the biggest commodity in the heavyweight division at the moment"

He also expressed confidence that the 31-year-old Cameron, ranked No 7 in the world by the WBO, would come out on top, saying he preferred the old David Tua to the new one.

"Every time when anybody comes and says, `I have the new David Tua or the new Joe Blow,' it doesn't mean he's improved," he said.

"He [Tua] was a great and is a great fighter, but he was one of the best punchers ever in boxing, so he's changed to the new. I prefer the old one."

Tua's United States-based promoter, Cedric Kushner, described the fight as a world-championship eliminator.

"If you study the top-10 of all the sanctioning bodies, particularly from an American standpoint, you're barely familiar with any of the names," he said.

"They're all East Europeans."

On the other hand, Tua had fought on the HBO and Showtime networks in the United States and was a familiar figure to fans there.

"The point being, when he wins the fight, he will get the opportunity to fight for the world championship, because of the fact that he is well-known, and that's a very important point."

Boxing commentator Colonel Bob Sheridan, who has covered more than 870 world title bouts, said the Tua-Cameron result would have worldwide ramifications for the "lacklustre" heavyweight division.

The last bout Sheridan called was Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko's successful defence of his WBC belt against Mexican-American Cristobal Arreola at the weekend, a contest he described as "dull".

"If David Tua or Shane Cameron had been there, it would have been a much more exciting fight," he said.

"I assure you of that."

Sheridan also questioned the one-sided betting in favour of Tua, and recalled James "Buster" Douglas' monumental upset of a previously undefeated Mike Tyson in 1990.

"I sat at press conference just like this in Tokyo, Japan, three days before a guy called Buster Douglas was to fight Mike Tyson," he said.

"Buster Douglas had zero chance, 46-to-one odds against, and you know what happened. He became the heavyweight champion of the world."

- NZPA