By Gary Brownlie: On the 13th of November, with the overture of God Save the Queen ringing out, two British fighters will stand in the ring to contest the Heavyweight Boxing Championship of the World. Not since the days of Frank Bruno and Lennox Lewis has a fight for the championship belt of boxing’s marquee division been an all British affair. Although there will only be 20 feet separating them, the roads the two fighters have taken to get to this point are worlds apart. One fighter, in David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s), who has achieved everything he has set out to do in his career while the other, Audley Harrison (27-4, 20 KO’s), has struggled to live up to hype surrounding the start of his professional career.

There has been some criticism directed at David Haye for making the fight but this is going to be a massive fight in Britain and I can understand the reasons why the fight is happening, rather than Haye facing a top ten ranked contender in the WBA. The man he has chosen to face, Audley Harrison, is a fighter that most people in Britain will know of, through his Gold Medal win for Great Britain back in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics. Haye also knows that Harrison can talk a good fight, with both fighters hitting the campaign trail on mainstream British television and radio, which is a rare thing for boxing in the UK, talking up their past friendship which descended into dislike and disdain. When the fight was announced you couldn’t turn on your television or radio without seeing or hearing quotes from both fighters, some of the talking was over the top but it has worked in the fact that it has generated more interest from the general public than any other fight in recent years.

Although he is known to general public in Britain, Harrison hasn’t lived up to his initial billing as the man to replace Lennox Lewis at the top of the heavyweight division and only two years ago Harrison was defeated by a taxi driver from Belfast in the shape of the courageous Martin “The Entertainer” Rogan (12-2, 6 KO’s). This was one of a few set backs in Audley’s career, he has bounced back in recent times though to win the the Prizefighter Tournament and the European Boxing Union heavyweight title with a dramatic, last round knock-out of Michael Sprott (32-15, 17 KO’s). Audley has always claimed that it is his destiny to win a world title, something few people believed would happen but he now has his chance to prove all his critics wrong and make up for years of wasted potential.

Standing in his way is David Haye, a man who unified the Cruiserweight division before going on to beat the biggest heavyweight champion of all time, Nikolai Valuev (50-2, 34 KO’s), to claim the WBA belt back in November 2009. Even before becoming the WBA champion Haye had been chasing after both Klitschko brothers, attempting to provoke either into a fight with him, the fight though has failed to materialize. The latest reason for this being the fighters unable to agree how to split the money generated by the fight. As such Haye has had to lower his sights in going after former friend and sparring partner Audley ‘A Force’ Harrison, something which Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) has branded as a “London championship fight”. It is an understandable point of view if you are not living in the UK, but over here this fight will eclipse the super fight between the Filipino phenomenon Manny Pacquiao (55-3-2, 39 KO’s) and the much maligned Mexican, Antonio Margaritto (38-7, 27 KO’s), which happens to be on the same night.

Whatever the outcome, I think the positives of this fight happening out-weigh the negative. The job done by both fighters in marketing this fight has already got people talking and re-engaged fans who have fallen away from the sport, something that only a clash of heavyweights has the ability to do. While the talking continues, the build-up rumbles on and the fight finally takes place we should all enjoy the ride as it could be another 17 years before we see anything like this on these shores again.