Audley Harrison enjoying status as unlikely fan favourite
Who says you can’t be an underdog and a favourite at the same time?
Fan feedback and betting odds don’t always match up, as heavyweight contender Audley Harrison is quickly learning.
He’ll take on WBA heavyweight titlist David Haye on November 13, and remains a solid underdog for a fight he nevertheless has received incredibly strong backing for.
With less than two weeks until fight night, Harrison stated he was “overwhelmed” by thousands of messages of support he receivedsince returning from an initial phase of training in Big Bear, California.
While Harrison once won a gold medal at the Olympics, he feels that fans and his focus are colliding and will grant him the biggest win of his professional career.
Eddie Hearn, who promotes Harrison, said: “After all these years of criticism, it is gratifying that so many people are now getting behind Audley and want him to achieve his dream.”
Boxing politics has something to lend to the unexpected praise of Harrison.
It’s no secret to many that Haye, although a champion, has done little to prove himself as the best of the best. Haye has all but ducked challenges from both Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, as well as failed to negotiate a fight with other top rated heavyweights.
Harrison, by all stretches, was more than grateful to sign this bout.
After failing to engage Haye, Klitschko finds himself in a December 11 title fight with newcomer Derek Chisora. Chisora, while demonstrably a wild fighter in the ring (he’s bitten opponents Mike Tyson style) mirrors Harrison in that he has become a fan
favourite merely by being precisely what Haye is not.
Chisora is also particularly witty, a trait completely foreign to “Dr. Steelhammer.” Chisora’s wit makes him charismatic. At the fight press conference with Klitschko, Chisora made fun of his older brother Vitali’s recent demolition of Shannon Briggs,
saying: “That [was] not a fight for heavyweight boxers. He [Briggs] didn't take any risks. He came to get paid. George Foreman was a legend. You and brother will never fill his shoes. You made boxing stink."
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