By Chris Williams: Former Olympic Gold Medalist Audley Harrison (23-3, 17 KOs) defeated Brazilian heavyweight George Arias (41-11, 29 KOs) by a 10-round decision on Saturday night at the M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, in Lancashire, United Kingdom. The final scores were 98-94. Although much of the media has criticized the 36 year-old Harrison’s performance, calling it a lackluster win, I beg to disagree with them. Harrison looked impressive against a fighter with a sturdy chin and a style that wasn’t suited to make Harrison look his best.

Other than the 4th, 5th and 9th rounds, in which Harrison took the rounds off to rest a little, he easily dominated the rest of the action with his probing jab, right hook, and left uppercut. Aries, though, a smallish heavyweight at 5’11”, fought hard and gave a good effort of himself. However, he wasn’t nearly in the same class as the former Olympian and never put him in any kind of trouble. If Harrison can be blamed for a pedestrian performance, it’s only because his opponent was so far out of his league. Harrison was able to fight at half speed much of the time and still dominate Aries.

When he would it on, like in rounds one, six and ten, he buried the slower, weaker Aries with powerful shots to the head. If there is any criticism to be made of Harrison’s performance, it’s the fact that he didn’t put his punches together most of the time.

Instead of throwing combinations, he pecked away at Aries with one punch at a time as if he felt he could stop him with one shot. It should have been obvious early on after Harrison landed several gargantuan left uppercuts to the head of Aries that he wasn’t going to be able to take him out with a single shot. I also think some of Harrison’s reluctance to let his hands go was out of fear that he would punch himself out, and end up being taken out by something big from Aries. Believe me, Harrison had nothing to fear from Aries, because the Brazilian couldn’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag from what I saw of him.

The crowd didn’t seem to even give Harrison the slightest chance, already beginning to boo him loudly at the end of the 1st round, even though he fought well in the round. It seems as if they were already jaded from his past performances and nothing short of a quick knockout was going to please them. Harrison, for all practical purposes, was in a no win situation with the crowd. The action was dominated by Harrison, who used his left uppercut and straight left to keep the shorter Aries on the outside. Harrison’s jab, however, lacked power and he rarely threw it with any kind of conviction. Instead, he used it as a range finder, pawing with it and preventing Aries from getting close to him.

Harrison continued to be booed loudly in the second round, despite hitting Arias often with straight left hands and rarely getting hit with anything back from him. Again, it seemed as if the crowd was looking for more combinations, more intensity, more power on his shots, but that’s not how Harrison fights. He’s master class fighter who uses his boxing skills rather than crude slugging to get his wins, and at his age, he’s not likely to change no matter how much the fans dislike his style. It works for him, so why change it?

In the 3rd round, Harrison fought more cautiously, treating Arias as if he were a knockout threat rather than the light-hitting fighter that he was. It seemed rather silly of Audley, for Arias had done nothing up to this point in the fight to warrant being treated like a dangerous puncher. However, as if keying on Harrison’s fear of him, Arias began landing well near the end of the round. In fact, he ended the round landing a series of combinations as Harrison stood like a statue with his gloves glued to his head.

Considering the vast gulf between the talent of these two fighters, it was rather disappointing that Harrison would give Arias so much respect, because this was a fighter not nearly in the same class as Harrison and someone he probably could have taken out at any time if he let his hands go.

Aries came on strong in rounds four and give, winning both of them by a slight margin. He fought all out, foot the floor using everything he had in his armament yet he still barely edged the rounds with Harrison fighting at half speed.

Harrison’s work rate continued to suffer in the 6th round, as he threw one shot at a time, throwing punches as if he were miserly saving them for later on. However, Arias did zero in the round other than take shots to the head. Harrison was especially impressive in the 7th, perhaps his best round of the fight. He looked better than IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, in terms of skills, as he threw hard uppercuts and straight left hands that bounced off the face of Arias with great regularity.

A fighter with a lesser chin than him would have no doubt been knocked out by the huge shots Audley landed in the round. However, Arias took them without flinching and fired back on occasion with his own shots. The crowd, of course, booed Harrison all the way through the round, failing to appreciate the good performance they were seeing in the round. Harrison opened up with a huge amount of power shots in the 8th round, hitting Arias with one shot after another, backing him up.

This was Harrison at his best. In the 9th round, Audley appeared to take it off, resting a little and giving Arias a chance to throw some of his own punches for a change. It was an Arias round until the last minute when Harrison opened up with some big shots to the head, which made it close. I still think Arias did enough in the round to win it, but his shots failed to match the power of Harrison’s shots.

In the 10th round, Harrison went all out as the crowd booed him from start to finish of the round. Harrison hammered Arias without stop, rarely letting up at any time during the round.