Audley Harrison v Michael Sprott II
If you look through the chronicles of sport there have been iconic moments that have captured the entire world’s imagination. Scenes like Bobby Moore lifting the Jules Remet, Nelson Mandela and François Pinaar celebrating South African World Cup victory and who will ever forget Torvill and Dean’s glorious Bolero?
Boxing has been blessed with Muhammad Ali against George Foreman and later Smokin' Joe Frazier, while Tommy Hearns and Marvellous Marvin Hagler competed in a war and then there’s the classic Sugar Ray Robinson v Jake La Motta series. All these illustrious occasions pale to insignificance compared to tonight’s European heavyweight match-up, arguably the biggest coming together of all time. That’s right, Audley Harrison and Michael Sprott are getting back in the ring, and this time they are playing for keeps.
Forget David Haye, forget the Klitschko’s, this is where the action is at in the 200+lbs division. Harrison, the 2000 Sydney Olympic gold medallist, is in phase two of his magnificent comeback, having gloriously claimed the Prizefighter trophy after a plodding performance and a fortuitous left-handed straight downed chubby Irishman Coleman Barrett. A triumph for Harrison that got him his shot at the EBU title. Somehow.
The bout was originally scheduled to be against Albert Sosnowski who was the holder of the belt. Clearly terrified by the prospect of getting in the ring with “A-force” the pole legged it to go and fight Vitali Klitschko. The coward. That left the organisers with a tricky problem, is there anyone out there with the guts to go toe-to-toe with Audley Harrison? Just one man. The call was made and Sprott answered it, the fight the world wanted to see was on.
Who can forget their first outing? Harrison was riding high on a wave of success, just two defeats out of 23 fights all against journeymen and tomato cans. However Sprott, wanted to gatecrash the party, and gatecrash it he did do.
From the bell the two giants moved round the ring with the grace of two tanks trying to simultaneously parallel park in the same spot. The crowd were on their feet when Sprott hit the deck in the first, Harrison’s trademark jab besting Reading’s favourite son as he looked for a way through A-force’s armoury. As Harrison recalls that fateful day he rued the fact that he was so good he accidently sent his opponent sprawling too early. "I knocked him down first round which made me go away from the game plan a little bit and I didn't respect his power.”
In the third we were given the moment that rocked the world of boxing. Harrison meandered forward haphazardly just as Sprott was pulling back his big left hand ready to unleash a hook. Down went the herculean warrior, out cold. Sprott reeled away in celebration, Harrison came round about a week later oblivious to what had happened, but no-one else there on that momentous night will ever forget the events that transpired.
Fast forward three years and its rematch time. Harrison’s career looked to be over following that, his third career defeat. It wasn’t though, he still had another loss to Martin Rogan in him as he continued to underperform against journeyman. Then out of nowhere he appeared on the bill for the 2009 Prizefighter competition, which he won, and just like that A-force was back and in contention for a European belt.
Meanwhile Sprott's career took a similar turn, he went onto lose the world-title eliminator match to Matt Skelton in what must surely rank as one of the most boring fights in history. Since then he’s been on the circuit, no doubt waiting for his arch-rival to stick his head above the parapet once again so he could refuel the fires that bring out the best in him.
Word on the street is if Harrison loses this one then he is done. Right now A-force is a man dripping with confidence, he knows that if you can beat Barrett you can beat anyone and he has rightfully been calling out Haye in the last few days, saying the WBA champion is scared of him. I think he’s probably right, who wouldn’t be scared of Harrison?
This fight will probably be decided by knockout purely because neither of these two fighters looks like they could go the distance. At 38 years old Harrison is just a touch past his prime. He’s still got that awesome power that he never uses, has the movement of a two legged turtle and is the only boxer to fight every fight with utter fear in his eyes.
As for Sprott he’s a scrapper, he will look to bring it to the inside, give 110% and maybe land a devastating hook or two like he did in the first match-up. As the younger man and the victor in their last bout he will not be considering himself the underdog.
Mark my words, this is not one to miss. There is going to be fireworks from the first bell and it might be the last time Harrison ever steps foot in the ring. If this is the final time we see the brave combatant then at least we can remember the glory day’s he so magnanimously gave us.
Like the time he, erm...oh dear.
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