By Erik Schmidt: Former 2000 Olympic Gold Medallist Audley Harrison (22-3, 17 KOs) returned to his winning ways on Saturday night with a 5th round stoppage over American Jason Barnett (10-7, 4 KOs) at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night. The end came suddenly when Harrison, 36, landed a powerful left uppercut to the midsection of Barnett, 33, dropping him to one knee. Barnett beat the count, getting up at eight but referee Russell Mora had seen enough and stopped the one-sided fight at 1:48 of the 5th round.
The other four rounds had been all Harrison, who landed a high number of straight left hands and jabs, blackening Barnett’s right eye and swelling up his left eye as well. The capacity crowd began booing Harrison in the 3rd round, unhappy with Harrison’s conservative offense which consisted mostly of jabs and an occasional straight left hand. Though Harrison was dominating the fight, he still fought tentatively against a fighter that he should have been able to wipe out in a round or two. Instead, he mostly threw one punch at a time when throwing punches other than his jab, and looking very cautious as if Barnett was a knockout threat instead of a badly overmatched opponent.
In the 1st round, Harrison came out looking good, shooting a straight left repeatedly to the head of Barnett. It had been a year since Harrison had last fought, a 3rd round stoppage to Michael Sprott in February 2007. Despite the time off, Harrison didn’t look that bad, although he did appear a little flabby around his midsection and slightly more aged looking that he was last year. He only threw a couple of combinations in the round, but for the most part he didn’t look that bad. That said, he didn’t appear like a threat to any of the top heavyweight champions, either.
In the 2nd round, the 6’5″ Harrison began measuring the 6’2″ Barnett with his right hand, aiming his left hand as if it was a gun. Most of the shots were the harmless variety despite Harrison’s huge size but he did land an excellent combination midway through the round that got Barnett’s attention. For his part, Barnett wasn’t even trying to return fire, instead mostly standing in front of Harrison like a faithful sparring partner. Near the end of the round, Barnett finally let loose with a big right hand that caught Harrison flush, surprising him and snapping his head back in the process. If Barnett had much more power, I wouldn’t have been the least surprised if he had knocked Harrison out with the shot. As it was, all it did was anger Harrison, who then responded with a big right uppercut to the head of Barnett just before the bell sounded ending the round.
In the 3rd round, perhaps still remembering the right hand that he’d been hit with by Barnett, Harrison fought very cautiously, almost exclusively jabbing while leaning on his back foot to be ready to flee in case Barnett showed a hint of aggression. It looked bad, almost like the way Wladimir Klitschko, the IBF heavyweight champion fought timidly against the light-hitting Sultan Ibragimov in their recent title unification bout. However, in this case it was even worse, because Barnett wasn’t anything close to a champion. More likely a C-level fighter that Harrison was afraid to let his hands ago against. The crowd, naturally, hated Harrison’s fearful style of fighting and let him have it with a chorus of boos for the remainder of the round. It didn’t do much to cause Harrison to pick up his pace any unfortunately.
Harrison continued mostly jabbing in the 4th round, rarely showing any hint of a left hand until halfway through the round when he finally left loose with a decent left to the head. He then began mixing in some good left uppercuts, perhaps his best weapon in his arsenal. Not sure why Harrison chose to hold off on the punch for so much of the fight other than he was possibly afraid of taking a right hand while attempting to throw it, such was the case in his fight with Sprott. Near the end of the round, Harrison began to throw some good combinations and finished the round in a strong fashion. He still looked slow and flabby but at least he was finally letting his hands go for a change.
In the 5th round, Harrison started the round with his jab doing most of the work. That is, until Barnett tagged him with a bigh right hand that woke Harrison up from his safety first fighting style. The right hand served the purpose of lighting a fire under Harrison’s backside, for he probably realized that he needed to try and get Barnett out of there as fast as possibly to prevent getting hit with too many more of them. Shortly after that, Harrison landed a series of combinations, ending with a powerful left hand to the body that dropped Barnett to one knee. He got up at the count eight but the referee stopped the fight anyway, because Barnett hand only been throwing several punches per round since the fight started.
It wasn’t a particularly impressive performance by Harrison, who should have dispatched with Barnett much sooner than he did considering his talent level and the fact that he wasn’t throwing any punches back at Harrison. If Harrison is serious about winning a title, he’s going to need to get much more active and take off some fat because he doesn’t have much time left in his career due to his advanced age. If he’s going to do it, he’s going to have to move very quickly because none of the champions are likely going to bestow upon him a title shot unless he beats a couple of top contenders. That, it seems, is the main problem for Harrison. It’s doubtful he can beat a top fighter at this stage of his career. He would, however, be a good opponent for David Haye, who is badly in need of a couple of big named fighters to increase his reputation in the heavyweight division. Harrison would be the perfect fighter for that – someone still famous but with little power to test Haye’s fragile chin.