Gallant Sheffield boxer will head back to Australia for fresh challenge

The Sheffield fighter was outpointed in the Commonwealth super middleweight title contest by a super middleweight being tipped for world title status and his team are finalising a return for another title.

He has been pencilled in to fight Aussies Blake Caparello or Renold Quinlan.

Cameron valiantly defend behind a high guard all night against Dunn and says wished he could have done more offensively. But he takes his hat off to his highly-acclaimed opponent.

“I won a lot of respect out there, a lot of people were surprised how well I did, they thought he would KO me in the third round” he said.

“The kid hit like a mule.

“They were the hardest shots I have ever face, and I have fought and sparred some very good opponents.

“I’d had 13 months out and I could have picked an easier opponent, but I wanted to get in there with the best and test myself.

“He’d been active every three months and knocking people out unconscious and won an IBO world title.

Zac’s team had spent £20,000 on sparring partners and knew everything about me, they were flying in world champions to get him ready. It is unbelievable how much work they’d done.

“They showed me a video of him sparring with Jahmaine Smyle (English super middleweight title holder) and Dunn was brutalising him, smashing him to bits.

“That has filled me with confidence because Zac was mainly hitting my arms and gloves and I know I got some of the better scoring shots. And later he admitted I did hurt him.

“But he was ferocious, he never stopped ploughing in. My forearms were black and blue from shots.

“He broke my nose in the fourth round, there was claret everywhere.

“I bust both my hands, I didn’t even know how hard I was hitting him with those tiny gloves because I couldn’t feel anything, my hands were so damaged, it was mad!”

Asked if he had any regrets over his performance at The Melbourne Pavilion, or whether he would have done anything different in hindsight, the Manor Park fighter replied: “It’s hard to say.

“If I’d had a bat in there I’d have hit him with it! If I could have done something different I would have done it at the time.

“I didn’t want to be so defensive but was forced to be like that.

“I didn’t want to be trapped on the ropes and we had worked so hard to avoid that, but he was like a bull.

“It was so difficult to get at him. Nobody had given me a chance, I was 20-1, and to be fair Zac was better than I thought he was.

“I took a massive risk and it didn’t pay off. But he had to work for it. He was vomiting in the breaks in the last three rounds, he was so throwing so much in and so relentless” said Cameron, 26. “I must be one of the toughest people out there, There are no many people who would have been able to take those shots.

“You have to be granite to take everything he throws.”

Cameron doesn’t expect the Aussie to hold on to his Commonwealth prize for long.

“As far as his camp were concerned, I think they will probably vacate the title, they are getting him ready for a world title. They saw me as a tick-over fight for him.

“From my point of view I just need to improve my work rate. I am lacking there. We are going to get a punch-counter, set a target for how many I throw. I need to keep throwing, throwing, throwing.

“At the end of my career I want to be able to say I have been in with some great fighters, and on this occasion I did my best but came up short. The fight has taught me a lot.”