12 years on from broadcasting himself to the nation with his
triumphant gold in Sydney it looks as though the curtain has
finally come down on Audley Harrison's much publicised boxing
career.
At 40, and with more miles on the clock than Lance Armstrong,
Harrison was not only kidding himself but also the paying public
that he had any place in a ring with a fatal puncher such as
Liverpool banger David Price.
But while Price's 82 second punch perfect display may have
served us another honourable chapter into the ever growing story of
the hard hitting Liverpudlian, more ominously it surely spells the
end of the Audley Harrison one.
Harrison in the eyes of many will be remembered as a fiasco, a
fighter who so often talked the talk but almost continually failed
to walk the walk. A man so captivated in informing fight fans and
promoters how sharp he was feeling or how the new Audley would show
up next fight quite merely never ever quite got going.
But while Harrison may not have lived up to his own billing in a
much publicised 12 year professional career, there has been
specific good that has arisen from the Audley chapter. Between
Chris Finnegan striking gold in Mexico City back in 1968 and the
Londoners repeat feat at the Sydney games in 2000 no British boxer
had even made an Olympic final. 12 years on and British boxing has
revelled in its greatest Olympic success in history at this
summer's games in London, a deed largely owed to Harrison.
Audley marched through parliament in protest to fight for
amateur boxing upon the back of his Olympic success, fighting for
government and lottery funding to aid and develop the sport that
had given him so much. Price even after putting on a menacing
display in front of his home fans on Saturday night still found
time to show his respect and appreciation to Harrison.
"If it wasn't for Audley Harrison, I would never have gone to an
Olympic Games, because I would never have had lottery funding,
Audley marched to Parliament to fight for it for boxers," said
Price. "So I would never have won a Commonwealth gold, I would
never have won an Olympic bronze. That goes the same for a few
guys.
"I told him I've got all the respect in the world for him and
always will have. He's been great for the game. I just wanted to
let him know I appreciated what he's done."
Off the back of Audley's persistence the current group of
amateur frontrunners no longer have to find work outside of boxing
nor do they need to worry about sponsorship, everything is in place
for them with a state of the art training complex in Sheffield and
the best coaching and facilities available to excel and prepare
them for the highest level of competition. Every British boxer who
has started his career via the Olympics since owes Harrison a debt
of appreciation.
The persona surrounding Harrison after his gold medal conquest
was that here was finally a marketable heavyweight that could
finally spring some life back into an ever diminishing heavyweight
division. Lennox Lewis was two years away from hanging up his
gloves, Mike Tyson was still punching for pay but was anything like
the menace that ripped through the heavyweight scene in the 80s
while the Klitschko's had yet to stamp any mark on boxing's most
celebrated division, everything was in place for Harrison to
shine.
The BBC jumped on the bandwagon, signing Harrison to a multi
fight deal believed to be worth up to a million pounds only to drop
him and boxing from the network all together after 17 fights.
Harrison then jumped ship to America soon after to catapult his
career across the pond and built up a handful of wins and even got
a mention in ring magazine as the heir to the Lennox Lewis
throne. A statement that looked inconceivable as he came back
to the UK to square off with one time Mike Tyson conqueror Danny
Williams at London's excel arena in 2005. He dropped a split
decision to Williams that night whilst also being dropped in the
tenth in a fight resembling more of a chess match than the sweet
science and was ultimately booed from the arena.
Things then got worse for Harrison as he was beaten in his next
fight by American Dominick Guinn and brutally stopped by domestic
heavyweight Michael Sprott three fights later. After edging his way
through a lacklustre Prizefighter draw he managed to claim the
vacant European strap with revenge over Sprott with a devastating
knockout in 2010 but such success was heavily outweighed largely by
disappointment and eventually ran into an in form David Haye at the
end of 2010 and stopped in three rounds without scarcely throwing a
punch.
Even a career CV that lists a European champion, world and
commonwealth title challenger aswell as a Prizefighter king was
enough to ever put to bed the bold claims of heavyweight domination
but somehow Harrison continually managed to draw the paying punter
back in with brash comments and wide remarks that next time you
really would see the real Audley.
Sadly the brash talking and bold statements never quite come to
fruition but as Harrison so frequently told us they don't just give
away Olympic gold medals, and while the latter is true Harrison
could never quite muster the fight and courage that the pro game so
rigorously demands. Smaller gloves, longer rounds, and men coming
to take your head off each fight were not the sort of recipe that
took to Harrison's stomach. Whilst an Olympic gold medal round your
neck essentially means you are your opponent's meal tickets to
bigger paydays resulting in stronger, hungrier opposition come
fight night.
But while Harrison himself admitted in the build-up to
Saturday's bout with Price that he had been "living a lie" for the
past 12 years, it was saddening to see the boo's circulate ringside
as Harrison lay haplessly on the canvas after falling victim to
Price's ever increasing resume of early stoppage victory's.
And whilst it is easy to condemn or mock the Harrison story, it
is worth remembering in the mist of ridicules and scorns that many
boxers owe a cent of gratitude from the rollercoaster story of big
A Force.
Written By Chris McCarthy
17/10/2012 23:12:41