By Scott Gilfoid: The man that should be given all the credit for a victory for 40-year-old Audley Harrison (28-5, 21 KO’s) this Saturday night over British heavyweight champion David Price (13-0, 11 KO’s) is the talented 6’7″ American Deontay Wilder (25-0, 25 KO’s), who gave Harrison four weeks of absolutely priceless sparring to get him ready for the 6’8″ Price.
Wilder, 26, is perhaps the biggest puncher in the heavyweight division at this time, and his right hand is already becoming legendary with him knocking guys out with one shot over and over again. Wilder is on a course for a heavyweight title. However, he was good enough to help out Harrison with a bit of sparring after getting a good offer to come join his camp recently. Wilder wasn’t the only talented fighter that helped Harrison out. He also had unbeaten Malik Scott (35-0) and Joe Hanks (20-0) lending a hand as well.
This trio of heavyweights have got to be the best set of heavyweights that could ever be used to get someone ready for a big fight. If Harrison gets beaten by Price you can’t say it was because he was ill-prepared for the encounter. If anything, you could say Harrison was too prepared, if that’s possible. But the time spent with Wilder is going to definitely help Harrison in this fight, because Wilder is a much bigger puncher than Price, with better hand speed and much better athleticism.
I’m just hoping that Harrison is still cogent after spending the four long weeks sparring with Wilder day after day, because Harrison already admitted that Wilder “Punches like a mule’ and that he was often with clean shots from him day after day. Harrison did have a slight advantage that may have helped him make it out of the camp in one piece in that Wilder was wearing 16 ounce gloves and Harrison was wearing headgear to protect him from Wilder’s heat-seeking missiles from his right hand.
Harrison and Price will be meeting up this Saturday at what will likely be a packed Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. For Harrison, this is definitely a do or die fight. He can’t afford to lose if he wants to remain relevant. For Price, he needs this victory to try and break the top 15 in the world rankings. A loss to Harrison would be a huge blow to his career and it would affirm the opinion that a lot of boxing fans have of Price having a glass jaw.
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