Fraudley to Continue to Disappoint, for Froch’s Sake

Now let me first of all state, I actually like Audley Harrison as a person, he comes across as a really nice guy, with his heart in the right place, unfortunately for the big man, the last place that his heart should be is in a boxing ring!

Audley has announced today he will continue as a “boxer”, despite suffering one of the worse defeats in history, since I foolishly decided to take on my brother in the Rumble in the Suburbs...circa 1988......in my mum’s front room. Back then my brother boxed amateurly, I was only 7, and he was 18. Plus to make if even more one sided, we only had one set of gloves, which I foolishly persuaded my brother to let me wear (as I thought I would be a proper boxer) without realising that getting hit by an ungloved hand hurts a lot more than a gloved one!

Hell even in that fight, although it may have been as one sided as the supposed Battle of Britain, and trust me it lasted a lot shorter, at least I got more than one punch off, I mean Harrison threw on punch...........one punch................I mean if you take into account the money he made that must be the best £ to punch ratio ever managed by a fighter!

I genuinely found myself caught up in the hype for the Haye vs. Harrison fight, with Haye coming across as focussed, determined, successful (or as we Brit’s like to call it...arrogant) to Harrisons understated, nice guy, underdog persona, and at points, the boxing logic part of my brain (yes I have one.........and yes more surprisingly I do have a brain!) shut down to allow me to believe that maybe, just maybe, the gentle giant Harrison could win!

The sad fact is though, Harrison didn’t even deserve to be in the ring with the World Champion, and it seemed to just be a fitting and the final chapter in Audleys embarrassing career that promised so much, but delievered so little, after his Olympic success.

Is Audley that bad a boxer? Obviously not, I mean the guy was a superb young prospect, and seemed to have all of the tools, but making the step up to the big time, he just never seemed to have the right head on.

His career just seemed to go from one joke to another, and every time he stepped in the ring he looked about as energetic as Santa on Boxing Day, and seemed to have no cutting edge. Is it because he is such a nice guy, maybe he doesn’t have that selfish side to him? That ruthlessness that allows you to push yourself harder and faster than your opponent in training and in the ring, perhaps he truly believes all of his hype and feels he doesn’t need to make an effort, hell, maybe he is a pacifist, who knows, the fact is that he has failed to deliver the goods for over a decade now, and that he could even still get a fight with the World Champion should be alarming.

So what does Audley have left to achieve, surely at the age of 39, any matches now will be almost pantomime esque, as people are lured to watch a lame tiger try and justify the hype the industry built up around him? You have to ask, what is he trying to achieve now? Is he doing it for the money? Does he truly believe he can still win a world title? Should any of us care....probably not!

As a fighter, who had so much promise, it must drive him mad not to deliver on it, and he seems as equally non plussed about it as us, but like in life, if you keep letting people down by promising the moon on a stick and not delivering, people tend to get annoyed, and it will be interesting to see how much mileage his career has left. As a truly nice guy, and someone who I think means well, I do wish him luck in the future, but personally, I think it’s time we moved on, and focused on true boxing talents, like the aforementioned Haye, and Carl Froch who pretty much put on one of the best displays of the year, some might say faultless, against Arthur Abraham in Finland on Saturday, yet got hardly any press exposure!

Another nice guy, Froch is genuinely world class, and I personally would love to see him get the credit he deserves, because this guy is truly a talent who can deliver in the ring!

Maybe Harrison should do the right thing and join Henson on Strictly!

As for the snow, my dog Murphy is loving it, and for once, not working has its benefits as I get to spend most of the day playing with him in it, but it’s not exactly great for the sporting world! It seems as though the ice age has actually cometh, instead of developing ways of combating the freezing conditions (such as under soil heating, Snoods etc) maybe we should change our sports to be more compatible with the new weather? More on this tomorrow!

Be excellent to each other compadres!