Harrison vs. Belshaw this Friday; Jennings Predicts Win Over Brook – News

By Boxing News - 09/29/2009 - Comments

By William Mackay: This Friday night, heavyweight Audley Harrison (23-4, 17 KO’s) will be meeting 6’7” Scott Belshaw (10-2, 7 KO’s) in a scheduled three round bout in the Prizefighter Heavyweights III competition at the Excel Arena, in Dockland, London. Harrison, 37, is hoping to meet his old nemesis Danny Williams in the finals.

Williams, 36, will be fighting Carl Baker on Friday night. Harrison, 37, is counting on getting by Belshaw so that he can get a third rubber match against Williams in the finals. The two have fought twice previously, with Harrison losing the first bout by a 12 round split decision in December 2005, but then gaining revenge a year later, stopping Williams by a 3rd round stoppage in December 2006.

Harrison has struggled since then, losing two out of his last four bouts. Williams has done reasonably well since then, winning five of his last seven fights, albeit against B level opposition. Harrison, the 2000 Olympic heavyweight Gold Medalist for Britain, is trying to turn his boxing career around by taking part in then Prizefighter eight fighter tournament.

All of the opponents are British with the best fighters being Williams and himself. It’s hard to tell what Harrison would be accomplishing if he were to win the tournament, other than proving he can beat local fighters in three round bouts. The 6’5” Harrison is quite good at using his long reach to fight effectively in the early rounds of his fights, and I can’t imagine anyone beating him unless Williams can blitz him early and take him out.

But beyond the Prizefighter boxing tournament, Harrison would be forced to go back to fighting 10 and 12 round bouts and that’s where the problem is for him. He tends to tire out a little late in his fights and get lazy. He was beaten by Martin Rogan last year in December 2008 in a 10 round decision loss. It was a close fight but Harrison still lost the fight.

But if Harrison is counting on a win in the Prizefighter putting him back into the thick of things on the world level, I think he may be sadly mistaken. He’s getting up there in age and I don’t see him as being competitive with powerful punchers like David Haye and the Klitschko brothers. Even to get to a shot against one of them, Harrison would have to weave his way though a number of top contenders without beaten. I don’t know if he has it in him to accomplish that at this late stage of the game.

Jennings thinks he can beat Brook

Welterweight Michael Jennings (35-2, 17 KO’s) is predicting that he’ll beat BBBofC British welterweight champion Kell Brook (20-0, 13 KO’s) in a 12 round bout on October 30th, at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool. Jennings, 32, a former British champion, was destroyed by Miguel Cotto in a 5th round stoppage in February in a failed attempt to capture the vacant World Boxing Organization welterweight title.

The loss knocked Jennings out of the top 15, which he perhaps should have never been ranked in the first place. Jennings has since rebounded from the disappointing loss by beating Willie Thompson by a 4th round stoppage on May 15th. Jennings thinks his experience will enable him to beat the 23-year-old Brook next month.

That unfortunately is the only thing that Jennings does appear to have on his side in this fight, because he doesn’t have the power to trade shots with Brook and will need to stay on the outside for the full 12 rounds or else Jennings will end up getting knocked lout like he was by Cotto.



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