By William Mackay: Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis thinks Audley Harrison (27-4 20 KO’s) has a decent chance of pulling off a huge upset next Saturday night and beating World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) when they meet up at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England.
Lewis does feel that Haye’s hand speed will be a huge asset for him in this fight, but thinks that Harrison can win if he lands one of his big left hands or figures out how to deal with the 30-year-old Haye’s speed.
Speaking to the BBC Sports News, Lewis said “I think when it comes down to it, Audley realizes it’s now or never. And he’s really giving some good talk about what he says he’s going to do in the ring. Now, what we really want to see from you [Harrison], is what you’ve spoken about; can he go in the ring and do all these things? I think David Haye’s a quick guy – he’s there and then he’s not. Audley definitely has the power to be able to stun the world and upset everybody’s thinking. It’s another great fight for Britain.”
Harrison clearly has the power, but he’s got to use it and use it early if he’s to have any chance in this fight. Harrison has had problems in the past of being far too passive and not fighting all out. When Harrison took part in the Prizefighter tournament recently, he had to turn up his offense early in fighting a series of three round bouts against different fighters. In order to win it, Harrison had to come out of the blocks much faster than he’s grown accustomed to doing in the pro ranks.
Fighting all out for three rounds seemed to really suit Harrison, the former 2000 Olympic super heavyweight Gold Medalist from Great Britain, as he was able to beat all three of his Prizefighter opponents, stopping two of them in the process. Harrison took that momentum into his fight with Michael Sprott and stopped him in the 12th round with a single left hand to the head despite fighting with a torn pectoral muscle for most of the fight.
Harrison will have to start much faster against Haye, because he can’t leave Haye around for 11 rounds to throw his pot shot bombs and occasional flurries. Haye hits too hard to leave him in the fight for long, and Harrison is going to have to go for broke early with one of his big left hand missiles if he wants to have a good chance of pulling off the upset over Haye.
Lewis says “I think [Harrison] has that burning desire. In my view, we have to remember Audley’s an Olympic champion. He basically went about his pro career his way, and there’ve been a couple of stumbling blocks he’s gone through, and he’s still here. So that shows me he has the desire to be accomplished and successful. I think it’s going to be a very close fight. Speed is a big, big factor. Can Audley neutralize Haye’s speed? I think it comes down to who is better at what they do, who is able to do what they need to do on the night.”
I think Harrison can neutralize Haye’s speed by throwing hard jabs to keep his stuck on the outside. Once Harrison has Haye blinded and perhaps a little puffy from the jabs, Harrison then needs to follow behind one of his hard jabs with one of his best left hand shots.
Harrison has to be thinking knockout all the way, because he may not get too many chances to score with his left hand unless his chin is good and he can take Haye’s shots. Carl Thompson, who was 40 at the time, was able to handle Haye’s power and stay in there long enough to score a stoppage over him in the 5th round in 2004.
Harrison may not need to eat as many punches as Thompson did in that fight in order to score a stoppage because he hits harder, but he’s going to have to be able to take a certain amount of them to get the win. It would be advisable for Harrison to stay away from clinching Haye, because as Haye has shown in his fights with Monte Barrett and John Ruiz, he’s dangerous with rabbit punches when his opponents attempt to clinch.
Haye basically doesn’t let them and uses the opportunity to pounds them at close range to the side and sometimes to the back of their heads. Harrison, if he does clinch, needs to wrestle Haye like a bear and hold onto him tight to keep him from opening up with his rabbit shots.
Haye did a number on Ruiz with the rabbit shots early in his last fight and was almost able to take the 38-year-old Ruiz with those shots alone. Of course, the referee should have penalized Haye over and over again for the rabbit punches, but instead the referee let Haye get off with only one penalization.
Since the fight is taking place in the UK, you can bet Haye will be able to get away with rabbit shots that would likely lead to him being disqualified if the fight were to be held elsewhere. This is why Harrison needs to stay out of the clinches unless he’s ready to wrestle Haye to the canvas to keep him from throwing his rabbit shots.
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