Cameron complaint KOs TV ad
A Sky Television advertisement promoting the July 5 boxing fight between heavyweight star Joseph Parker and United States veteran Brian Minto was pulled because it contained an incorrect claim that former contender Shane Cameron had retired.
Sky withdrew the commercial on Friday following a complaint and had since begun screening a re-edited version, a company spokeswoman confirmed.
“We did have a complaint that Shane Cameron’s career was definitely not ended. That was good enough for us so we took it upon ourselves to take the promotion down, edit that portion out and put it back up.” Cameron did not return the
call, but his manager Ken Reinsfield said the Mountain Warrior — who challenged unsuccessfully for the cruiserweight world title in 2012 — would likely re-enter the ring later this year.
Mr Reinsfield was angered by a claim from Minto in the original ad that he had sent Cameron into retirement after defeating him in a sevenround bout in December.
“I thought it was pretty disrespectful, extremely disrespectful,” said Mr Reinsfield, who blamed the error on fight promoter Duco Events.
“No one ever phoned me to ask if he had retired and then they go and stick that straight up? This is coming from Duco who, let’s face it, have made a lot of money off the back of Shane’s blood and sweat.”
Director David Higgins said Duco accepted responsibility for the error, which he attributed to Minto getting carried away.
“We were happy to adjust the commercial because we don’t want to offend Ken and Shane.”
Mr Higgins said it was unfair of Mr Reinsfield to imply Duco had exploited Cameron.
“Shane has made some good money on our promotions. We’ve considered and cautious view of that because when we bestow an honour on somebody it’s a very significant event and I always want to get a bit of perspective around that. History tells you there are very few hon- paid him close to a million bucks or heading up that way in the few times we’ve worked with him, so there are no hard feelings as far as we are concerned. Boxing is a business where there is a lot of talk in terms of building a promotion. Hopefully they don’t hold a grudge, but that is up to them.”
Minto said he had apologised to Cameron over the commercial when the pair met at the recent Super 8 fight night. ours that have been taken off people. You’ll remember the debate we had around Doug Graham.”
Mr Key decided late last year that Sir Douglas should keep his knighthood despite the Supreme Court’s upholding his conviction for signing off on false statements in the prospectus of failed finance company Lombard while he was on its board.
Mr Key also downplayed the need for a stronger investigative approach to cases of electoral malfeasance.
The John Banks case prompted Labour justice spokesman Andrew Little to call for a high-level independ-
“I’m not the type of person who likes to slander people or say mean things,” Minto said. “It was kind of a catchy thing I guess to promote the fight but I can see why they would be mad. I said ‘man, don’t take no offence, it’s just promoting the fight’. As you can imagine he was pretty sore. He was like ‘I’ll let this one slide’, but he was trying to break my stones a little bit.”
Mr Higgins said Parker, who is training in Las Vegas, was unaware ent inquiry into recent police investigations into politically charged cases, and for consideration to be given to establishing a dedicated independent anticorruption unit.
But the PM said that when a complaint is made against a politician, “in my experience the police are quite thorough in investigating those because they don’t want to be criticised that they somehow apply a different standard to members of Parliament than they would to anyone else in the of the dispute over the commercial.
“Joseph was present at Fight For Life and saw what Minto did to Cameron first hand. If he didn’t end his career he came damn close to it.”
While Cameron has not confirmed any plans for his return to the ring, a blockbuster showdown with Parker now appears a distinct possibility.
Mr Higgins said Duco had presented Cameron with a six-figure offer to fight Parker, which remained on the table. Police are trying to identify a body pulled from Wellington Harbour yesterday. People on board a fishing vessel spotted the clothed body at Pencarrow and the police launch Lady Liz retrieved it. Drilling is under way at Kotuku near Lake Brunner on the West Coast, 110 years after a railway worker discovered an oil seep bubbling to the surface. Petroleum Creek intends drilling up to four wells in the area and $500,000 has already been spent on the project.