DavieCooper.com Editor’s Blog

His career was a soap opera…then it was a pantomime…now it’s A-Farce. In 2000, Audley Harrison won an Olympic gold medal; a few months ago he was beaten by a Belfast cabbie. His journey from Olympic champion to laughing stock has been a humiliating debacle. Surely now, Harrison must abandon his dream of becoming world heavyweight champion. Think again - A-Force, relentless in his pursuit of serial disappointment, is staging another comeback. 

If self-delusion were currency, Audley Harrison would be a billionaire. Despite embarrassing losses to journeymen opponents, his advancing years (he’s 37), countless injuries, and the economic plight of boxing, Harrison believes he can return Phoenix-like to the higher echelons of the sport. Recently his media interviews have been peppered with desperate, self-motivating, psycho-babble: 

“It’s like the Michael Jackson song ‘Man in the Mirror’, I’ve looked at myself and the answer coming back has been ‘yes, you can’.“ 

A-Force is hanging onto reality by his fingernails. 

Maybe I’m taking his failure personally: I was a passionate Harrison supporter, and enjoyed many late nights watching his fisticuffs on the BBC. Some critics dismissed him as “another Bruno” who only brawled with second-rate bums. But I always felt he possessed far more natural ability than the HP sauce man. That’s why his recent capitulation is so frustrating. This British pugilist was talented enough to win a world title (remember the killer jab and lighting hands). So where did it all go wrong? 

In 2001, Harrison planted the seeds of self-destruction when he chose not to sign-up with a major boxing promoter. Instead, he opted to manage and promote himself using his A-Force Promotions company. The boxing establishment frowned at his decision and, at the dawn of his professional career, he had already irritated the major power brokers in the game.

Harrison’s next faux pas was to buy into his own mythology: the million pound contract with the BBC, the post-Olympics adulation, his “celebrity” status, all fuelled his burgeoning ego. Subconsciously, he was already celebrating in Caesars Palace - hoisting a gold plated, lacquered belt above his head. A-Force felt his sense of destiny would bestow greatness - it was a naïve and fatal assumption. There were years of hard grafting to be done first. 

On October 2, A-Force will have another last throw of the dice. He will be boxing in the Prizefighter event: an eight-man, one-night knockout tournament that includes British heavyweight Champion Danny Williams and Michael Sprott. Frank Warren is frantically promoting it, and a Harrison victory would help resurrect his flat-lined career.

We all have dreams in life – it’s healthy. Audley Harrison is no exception. His 2001 Autobiography was titled “Realising the Dream” and he often eulogises that “The dream is still alive”. But when your dream becomes a fantasy that you cannot relinquish, obsession lurks in the shadows. Audley if you lose your next fight – for your own sake - please hang up the gloves.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Editor's blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.