Mm.

To be a good shepherd, well, you gotta be able to work the stock, um, well, you know, understand stock and how they move and all those things, and that just takes more time.

Um, and then you need a good horse, and you need good sheep dogs-

Yeah.

So, you know, I've been approached a couple of times.

I'm like, "No, no, no, no." And then the third time was, um, someone wrote a, um, Lindsay, Lindsay Neil wrote a synopsis about sort of my career, and I sort of read it.

I was like, "Oh, yeah, that's...

Yeah."

How long did it take for you to come to grips with the fact that you're a former boxer?

yeah, oh, no, that was all right.

That's all right.

Yeah, like, I, you know, in hindsight, hindsight's a good thing.

18, you know, I should have retired probably after my world title fight because that really knocked me around.

Um, but, um, Yeah, and the timing was right because after the world title fight, because I lost that one, and then I fought again.

I fought Brian Minto, and I lost that one, a guy that I never thought would beat me.

I'm thinking, wow,

for

dinner or anything? Did he take you to his house to see his tiger? Does he have a tiger? No, no, we didn't do that.

No, it was a great experience.

And you know what? Like 10 years, I was in Las Vegas, and I met a guy in a bar.

And he goes, oh, you look like a bit of an athlete.

What do you do? I said, oh, I'm a boxer.

He goes, oh, a boxer.

What made you more nervous, stepping into the ring with Mike Tyson for the first time or standing up and doing your first dance on Dancing With The Stars?

When was it, Shane, that you discovered that you were, that you had a gift in boxing? How old were you, and what got you into it?

Yeah.

Um, I got into it, uh, on my OE, uh, when I flew down to London, um, after leaving farming, leaving shepherding.

I used to ride a horse to work.

I went to London when I was 19, watching some boxing over there.

I talk about a turning point.

I was watching some boxing.

Mentally.

Why did that mean more than some of your title wins, than the medals? You know, what, what was it about that one?

Yeah, well, as you pointed out, yeah, I mean, my fight with David Tua, that's such a huge fight, the biggest fight ever to happen in boxing history in New Zealand.

And, um, there's only one winner, you know, and that one in that night was David Tua.

You know, and the hype that was all surrounding it, you know, and I...

Man, I, I talked confidently however you view that, but, like, I was, I was dead set I was gonna take care of business.

I was gonna win, you know.

So, and I didn't, so that put a lot of pressure on me, and then I got...

What was it like for you examining that and, and opening up around something that's as personal as that?

always been a scrapper?

uh always sort of it's it's weird and i've had this conversation with quite a few people was like i always felt i needed to prove myself yeah i don't know why and then soon as that the day that i walked into the gym in 1998 i never had one fight outside the ring but before that i i fought every weekend yeah you know yeah it was around alcohol yeah and especially in england the palms they love a fight you know And then me being a young guy that don't back down to anything.

But it was just silly, man.

It was around alcohol and I needed to prove myself.

But when I started to know how to box, you know, then I'm like, oh, I don't have to prove myself.

Man, I can hurt some people.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

he's always angry

Mm.

So I put myself in that category.

So I think I, I took a lot of my energy into, I can work, you know? I'm not a good reader, not academic, but I can work.

I can outwork most people, you know? So that was my mentality, and I suppose that gave me the confidence after a while.

So if, if you, if you're thinking, like, say, like crutching a sheep.

Like, if you're pulling a sheep across the board and you gotta crush, you gotta tidy up the ass end of it and then push it down the, down the port hole.

And then, uh, you know, like, I'm thinking, "Okay, I wanna do 1,000 a day," you know? And I, and by the time I was 17, I, I did 1,000 in one day, and I beat, um, all the shepherds that were around me, and they were, they were in, they were in their 20s.

Mm.

I guess then my question is, where did your confidence come from to just go and do it?

Yeah, I don't know, because I didn't think I had any confidence as a young kid, thinking I couldn't read or write.

I found out years later I'm dyslexic, so I just thought I was a dumb kid.

So I put myself in that category.

So I think I took a lot of my energy into I can work.

I'm not a good reader, not academic, but I can work.

I can outwork most people.

success of things so much it's just okay that's done awesome next TV personality husband father all these things I guess which version of Shane feels most like you right now

... was writing about that more difficult than you thought it might be, or not?

Yeah, it's, it was, it was probably the right time.

It was probably the right time, you know? And [clears throat] that was probably a reason why maybe, you know, the right timing for the book maybe.

But it was, you know, there's another reason about that anyway, which I might've mentioned.

But, um, yeah, I can talk about it now.

You know, I couldn't talk about it for 10, 10, 12 years because of just, man.

And I think just, [clears throat] I was just thinking the other day, it was just the magnitude of it, how huge the fight was, how big the promotion was, and how I talked it up and how confident I come across and, you know.

Do you worry about what the rest of your life will be like?

Was that resolution for you? Was that retribution for you?

Yeah, absolutely, man.

Like me, I'm jumping up on those ropes and I just said, fuck yeah.

That's what I said.

You can see it.

So just like, and the people that, you know, I did it for myself, you know, at the end of the day and people wrote me off or whatever.

And that's, that's, that's common, man.

Was that resolution for you? Was that retribution for you? Yeah,

Was that resolution for you? Was that retribution for you? Yeah,

absolutely, man.

Like me, I'm jumping up on those ropes and I just said, fuck yeah.

That's what I said.

You can see it.

So just like, and the people that, you know, I did it for myself, you know, at the end of the day and people wrote me off or whatever.

And that's, that's, that's common, man.

Grant Nisbet's favourite song too, actually.

So what was going through your mind when D-Day gets released and you're thinking to yourself, all right, people are going to read the story now? Because people know a lot about you, eh? But

this is raw.

Yeah, there's a lot that's... that I've never shared only because I can't remember everything you know and just you know and reading the synopsis because I had a couple of people that were going to write a book and one was Pam Corkery you know back in the day after Treasure Island and it didn't eventuate because for the simple reason I didn't think it was There was enough of that to go in the book from my forefront.

But then someone else, Lindsay, did a synopsis and I read it and then I was going, how can I angle it? Because I'm just like, oh man, I haven't really done enough.

But then I looked at it and I'm thinking that's...

You know, I wanted to probably inspire young people that were not that good at school like I was, not academic at all.

I'm still not academic at all.

A 10-year-old, Shane, wouldn't believe that you'd have a book,

Mm-hmm

... you know, back in the day after Treasure Island, and it didn't eventuate because for the simple reason I didn't think it was...

There was enough of that, to go in the book from- from- from my forefront.

But then, um, someone else, um, Lindsay did a, um, a synopsis and I read it, and then I was going, "How can I angle it?" Because I'm just like, "Oh, man, I haven't really done enough." But then I looked at it, I'm thinking that's, you know, I wanted to probably inspire young people that were not that good at school like I was.

Mm.

Not academic at all.

I'm still not academic at all, but you know, there's some, there's some tools that I follow along.

Basically, you know, set goals and then if you're willing to, to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal, you know, that's how I live my life.

[laughs]

"... a bit of money there." But he was telling the, the, the media to get out of the ring.

You know, get out, get out the gym.

So they, they, they...

Cameras, action.

Boom, they're all out there, and then they closed down the shutters.

He went straight to the changing room, and then his coach, Jeff Fenech, walked out, and he goes, "Oh, Shane, Mike's in a bad mood today.

[laughs]