Harrison stops Rossy, captures Prizefighter tourney

By Boxing News - 02/23/2013 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: 41-year-old Audley Harrison (31-6, 22 KO’s) captured the heavyweight Prizefighter tournament to Saturday night in beating Derric Rossy (27-6, 14 KO’s) by a 2nd round knockout in the finals of the tourney at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom.

Harrison dropped Rossy twice in the fight with straight left hands to the head, once in the 1st and a final time in the 2nd. The fight stopped after Harrison landed a straight left that sent Rossy backwards to the ropes where he then went down.

Harrison may not be a good heavyweight in terms of bouts that last 10 to 12 rounds, but he’s very hard to beat in 3 round bouts when he’s not looking scared. In Harrison’s losses to David Price and David Haye, he was a completely different fighter than he was tonight. I think he just gets scared and undermines his own efforts. The victory gives Harrison 36,000 pounds in prize money.

Harrison, looking the leanest of his career, was just too accurate for Rossy as he was able to pick him off with straight lefts repeatedly in the two rounds of action. Rossy had beaten Travis Walker and Ian Lewison by close 3 round decisions in his first two bouts of the tourney to earn the shot to the finals bout with Harrison.

Up until his fight with Harrison, Rossy had done a good job of smothering his opponents by throwing one or two shots while leaning forward and then grabbing immediately. This didn’t work with Harrison because he was able to back away to keep Rossy from grabbing him while tagging him with shots while going backwards.

I personally had Rossy losing to the Prizefighter tournament favorite Travis Walker, but the judges somehow felt that Rossy’s ugly smothering tactics were good enough to give him the win.

In Harrison’s other bouts, he easily defeated Martin Rogan by a three round unanimous decision. Harrison kept the shorter Rogan on the outside by using his jab, moving constantly and clinching him when he’d get in punching range. In Harrison’s first fight of the competition, he stopped Claus Bertino by catching him with a straight left hand as he was coming in. The shot badly hurt Betino and the fight was halted right then and there.

After the tournament tonight, Harrison said “I want the chance to prove that I can capture a world title.”

Here are the Prizefighter results

Audley Harrison TKO 2 Derric Rossy
Derric Rossy SD 3 Ian Lewison
Audley Harrison UD 3 Martin Rogan
Derric Rossy SD 3 Travis Walker
Ian Lewison TKO 1 Timo Hoffmann
Martin Rogan TKO 3 Albert Sosnowski
Audley Harrison TKO 1 Claus Bertino



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