By Sean McDaniel: British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and his promoter Mick Hennessy have rejected a fight against former Olympic heavyweight gold medalist Audley Harrison for September 17th, saying this to ESPN: “I’ve just brought Channel 5 into boxing — I don’t want to chase them away!”
It seems that they’re afraid of Harrison crumbling early the same way he did in his 3rd round knockout loss to WBA heavyweight champion David Haye last year in which Harrison threw only one punch in three rounds of action.
Haye and Harrison took a great deal of heat from the British public who were angry that they had to pay to see the non-fight on Sky pay-per-view. It looks like Fury doesn’t want to take any unnecessary risks that this could be the same fate if he were to fight the 39-year-old Harrison.
In addition to turning down Harrison, Fury has also rejected the idea of revisiting negotiations with 40-year-old Irish heavyweight Martin Rogan.
Fury is still going to have to find someone by September 17th, and it’s not looking good at this point that he and his promoter are going to be able to find anyone halfway decent for the Irish fans or fans watching on television to see him fight. More than likely, Fury will take a huge backwards step from Dereck Chisora, who Fury defeated recently to capture the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles. If it is a poor heavyweight, hopefully this is just a one-time affair and doesn’t become the norm for Fury.
A fight against Harrison will likely be a much better option than any poor heavyweight Fury’s promoter can dig up. However, it could be possible that there is some fear there with facing the hard hitting Harrison because you never know what you’re going to get in facing Harrison. He can look really bad like he did against Haye, and then he can turn around and knockout almost everyone in the process of winning the Prizefighter tourney. Harrison hits harder than Fury and could be a dangerous opponent, especially with his back against the wall like it is right now. He has nothing to lose.
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