Haye v Harrison : The Mismatch

By Tommy Graves: It has been rumored David Haye’s second defence of his World Boxing Association heavyweight Crown will be against Audley ”A Force” Harrison, the 38 year old, Olympic Gold medallist of 2000. I have read several articles on the web covering this topic, so I decided to voice my own opinion. Some people believe this fight is a good match-up and will do great things for British boxing and some people believe this proposed bout is a mockery of the sport and will do no good for either boxer’s careers.

I am one of those who feel Harrison V Haye is a complete mismatch.

Harrison had a successful amateur career and went onto win Gold at the Sydney Olympic games in 2000, this achievement earned him a MBE and he decided to turn professional.
His almost over night fame brought Audley offers of high profile sponsorships deals and he signed a £1 million deal with the BBC to show his first ten professional fights.

Harrison was tipped as the next big heavyweight from Britain to get to the top of sport at a world class level and was thought to be the next Lennox Lewis, who beat all the toughest boxers in the world at that time to be considered the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Harrison was undefeated in his first 19 fights until facing ‘The Brixton Bomber’ Danny Williams, in which he lost the bout by a Split Decision, Harrison then went on to fight Danny Williams again and avenged his loss by KO. Harrison then signed up for the prize-fighter series, Audley fought well and won the whole tournament, but to be as respectful as possible this heavyweight series was made up of domestic journey men and faded talent.

If you look at Audley “A Force” Harrison’s professional record, he has mostly faced average skilled fighters such as Julius Francis and Martin Rogan (in which he lost). You would struggle to find even a few names on his resume in which could be considered B level opponents except perhaps Tomasz Bonin and Danny Williams during his prime.

I don’t see how Harrison is worthy of a fight against WBA champ Haye when he has never fought any top contenders in the heavyweight world scene.

It is not for me to say if Harrison has the talent to succeed at world level simply because he hasn’t fought at that level before so how can I or anyone else judge him.

Surely its common sense if Harrison has lost in his career against boxers like Rogan and Guinn, and has never faced any of the current top class talent at heavyweight on the world scene such as Alexander Povetkin, Tomasz Adamek, Odlanier Solis , Ruslan Chagaev, Alexander Dimitrenko and Tony Thompson how does he expect to beat ‘The Hayemaker’.

I believe Harrison should fight at least one or two of world heavyweight talent to prove he is worthy for a shot at the WBA crown or any other title at a world class level.

Some people say Haye is as Harrison stated “a false prophet”, although it is true that Haye has only fought four names at Heavyweight all who are close to 40 years of age like John Ruiz and Nikolai Valuev.
Despite this, the four names are most definitely certified world class level.

Even taking that into consideration, Haye was undisputedly the ruling cruiserweight in the world so he has paid his dues to fight at heavyweight unlike Harrison.

I honestly can’t see any attraction for this fight except the fact these two are both English and do not like each other due to falling out.

These two are at completely different stages in their careers, Haye has just proved himself as a legitimate heavyweight winning the title and defending it against the tough two time ex-champ Ruiz and Harrison has got his career back on track by winning the prize-fighter series after doing nothing remotely impressive since 2004 or even since winning his gold medal at the Olympics.

Not only are they at different stages in their careers I honestly feel they are residing at completely different levels of skill and competition.

I think Haye’s top priority should be to face a Klitschko Brother but as things have shaped up that wont happen for a while but hopefully will sooner rather than later.

Putting the Ukrainian twins aside Haye should face a hungry top ten contender such as Tomasz Adamek or Alexander Dimitrenko.

As for Harrison, he should set his sights on simply fighting someone of notable talent in the top 25 within the world rankings or even fight a young up and coming British fighter such as Derek Chisora or Tyson Fury.

I could also see Harrison fighting an active veteran ex-champion fighter like Evander Holyfied or David Tua.

I do hope these two find more suitable opponents to fight but If it happens I am sure it will do financially well in Britain and people will pay a fair amount of money to watch the bout and it may well be an entertaining fight but as for their careers it just doesn’t make sense.

It is not for me or anyone to say who would win indefinitely but the odds seem to back David Haye.

If you think about where these guys are in their career at the moment and what level of competition they have been competing in recently, it is not hard to tell this proposed fight is a complete mismatch.

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