Harrison KO's Sprott with devastating left
In what is being touted as the greatest comeback since Elvis Presley, Audley “A-force” Harrison knocked out Michael Sprott to drag himself out of the boxing abyss and into international contention.
An extraordinary last-minute KO left the Klitschko brothers and David Haye quaking in their boots as the 2000 Olympic gold medallist secured the vacant European strap and quite possibly a world-title shot.
It was a left-handed hook of such ferocity Sprott’s grandchildren will be born with headaches. It came in the 12th round and at the time Harrison was behind on all three judges’ cards having struggled for the majority of the bout.
Harrison took charge from the opening bell throwing confident punches, he was clearly in business mode and it was a solid start by A-force as he took the first at a canter, comfortably out-jabbing Sprott. However, Harrison’s career is a ball of wool and once again it started to unfurl as things started to go horribly wrong from the second round.
Some sort of shoulder injury took away the threat of Harrison’s right hand, the southpaw fighter immediately switched to an orthodox stance as he could no longer jab with his right. That familiar “rabbit in headlights” expression glazed over Harrison’s face once again and the Londoner began disappearing back into his shell as Sprott bossed him around the ring.
Having shaken Harrison with a big right in the second, Sprott started racking up rounds and it wasn’t until the sixth that the big man started clawing his way back into it. A-force was warned by referee Dave Parris about his lack of right-handed punches as Sprott took full advantage of his one-armed opponent. The Reading-born pugilist set-up camp in the centre of the ring, but Harrison still had a bit in the tank and unleashed a mono-handed attack in the eighth. It seemed too little too late once more for Harrison as Sprott responded in kind in the 10th and when the journeyman boxer took the 11th as well it looked like the curtains were coming down on Harrison’s disappointing career.
Then something truly miraculous happened. Harrison did something in the last round that he has not shown in his previous 31 professional fights; he showed some heart.
The fat lady was warming up her vocal chords as the bell sounded for the final round. Harrison must have known that this was very likely the last of his career if he didn’t do something special. Sprott came out still throwing punches before going towards the ropes and covering-up. Harrison lumbered towards him and threw a meek uppercut with his left that grazed Sprott’s gloves, he dropped them down for a split second to see where his opponent was, and that is probably the last thing he remembers. It was lights out in London for the former British champion.
Harrison must have dipped his gloves in honey to execute a punch this sweet. It came out of nowhere but it was plumb on the button, Sprott taking the full A-force right on the chin. He went down like a great oak felled by a lumberjack, hitting the canvas out cold. Goodnight Michael.
Harrison went bouncing around the ring, half ecstatic by the victory, half in shock by the victory. Sprott was given oxygen and helped on to his stool as the crowd stood in amazement, nobody in Alexandra Palace would have predicted that was going to happen, not even one millisecond before it did happen.
The power was quite frankly devastating. The thing that winds everybody up about Harrison is that he has always had that power he just never utilises it, preferring to stand back and try and jab his way to victory, a hangover from his amateur days. His victory here was met with a familiar chorus of boos as he continues to repel support.
If A-force went into every fight giving a hundred per cent he would have respect, but normally he canters along at a lot less than that. He talks of world-title fights but shows all the heart of the lion from “The Wizard of Oz”. There’s always an excuse with him as well, apparently in this fight his whole right side “locked up”, granted if that did happen then fair enough, but if it wasn’t that it would have been something else.
One knockout punch doesn’t make a career, it might have been a great hit, but he hasn’t consistently done that. He made Sprott look top-class when in truth he’s just a decent domestic fighter, a 35 year-old journeyman with 15 career defeats out of 32 fights. Had it been Haye or a Klitschko against the gutsy Berkshire-fighter then it wouldn’t have gone three rounds.
What next for the European champion is anyone’s guess? With Haye intent on unifying the heavyweight division a Klitschko might be out the question. It’s possible he could get Wladamir if Haye fights Vitali, but it’s impossible to play fantasy-matchmaker with the amount of politics that flies round boxing.
If the Klitschko’s don’t fancy Haye then we could have ourselves an all-British title-fight. Realistically though I can see someone just outside the belts in an eliminator match, like Nicolay Valuev or Ruslan Chagaev, perhaps even the veteran Evander Holyfield who took the WBF title on the weekend.
So just like that Harrison has gone from being washed up, to on the brink of heavyweight championship glory. A-force, the laughing stock of professional boxing, is now in contention for biggest prize in town.
Meanwhile a pig is currently taxiing down the runway at Heathrow ready for takeoff.
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