Audley Harrison: No more excuses

When Audley Harrison walked off with a gold medal two Olympics ago he was rewarded with a $1.7 million television contract by the BBC who had been persuaded to believe that he possessed the equipment to become heavyweight champion of the world.

It all went wrong. Caught up in the world of celebrity, unable to make good his claim that it would be only a matter of time before he was fighting and beating the best in the division, poor as the heavyweight division is, he failed to impress against a succession of no hopers. Audley became “Fraudley.”

Harrison always talks a good fight as he did before emptying the hall as he did, the ExCel Arena in London’s Docklands while losing his unbeaten record to Danny Williams last December.

In London this week for the announcement of a contest against Matt Skelton whose brawling style makes for a classic matchup at the ExCel in two months time, Harrison said, “I was too comfortable. I needed the defeat by Williams and the ridicule that followed to wake me up. I’d been out on the scene at night. I went to every movie premiere. I was at every event. I was on every TV show. Not any longer. I’m off the celebrity circuit. I’m married. I’ve got a child and I’ve been beaten twice. Now I’m hungry.”

Harrison, 35 later this month, has to prove that he has discovered an appetite for boxing because the alternative in the United States had the sourest of tastes. When he followed up his defeat by Williams with an equally pathetic loss to anonymous US heavyweight Dominic Guinn in California  Harrison seemed to be cast in the role of an “opponent” for up-and-coming heavyweights in small hall untelevised bouts.

Luckily for him, Britain’s leading promoter Frank Warren reckoned that there is at least one fight left in him in the eyes of the British public to justify putting him on against Skelton as the main support for Scott Harrison’s defense of the world featherweight title against former European Nicky Cook.

The lure for Harrison is that if he can wrest from Skelton the Commonwealth championship he took from Williams, a world championship fight could be on the cards.

Skelton rejected an opportunity to challenge Oleg Maskaev for the Soviets of the world title because the offer to fight in Moscow in December fell well short of his expectations. However, Warren says, “There are four belts out there and I will make sure that the winner between Matt and Audley gets a shot at one of them, preferably in England.”

As a former kickboxer who will be 37 in January, Skelton doesn’t need to describe how hard it will be on the night. “I still want a world title chance so I did not have to take this fight,” he says.

This is probably Harrison’s last chance. “I know when I lost to Williams I also lost my credibility. I was distracted by dramas going on in my life, which I can’t talk about yet, but now I’m fully focused on boxing. To say I was frightened is ridiculous but I know my image is not right in the UK. I know there can be no more excuses.”