Harrison's Future

By Daniel Baguley

13.07 - I, for one, was very disappointed with Scott Harrison's performance on Saturday night. I had been predicting big things for the Scotsman but he showed a complete lack of ability to switch his style to suit the opponent in front of him. Manuel Medina was always going to be a difficult opponent and it makes me wonder what his training team actually had him training for! He certainly looked ill prepared for the man in front of him that night.

At times it looked as if Scott was going to start getting to Medina but he failed to capitalise on his rare successes every time. Questions must be asked as to why there were no combination's thrown. At times, Harrison was out of range throwing huge punches and missing completely and this was all through the fight and not just the end. Scott's manager and promoter, Frank Maloney, after the fight said Medina won with his "jab and grab" tactics. Well I must have missed the grabs because I saw very few clinches in the whole fight.

Lets not take away from Medina's performance. He was coming in being given very little chance against a highly touted opponent and did the job well. With this win he has put himself right back in the picture and with his long fight record that's quite incredible. He showed no signs of the wear and tear you would expect to see from a man with his battle list.

So what does the future hold for Scott Harrison? At twenty-five, he's still got time and it would be wrong to write him off but that loss was damaging. People are talking about him having trouble making weight. Well he's never mentioned this so that's not really a feasible reason. There's no doubt he's showed much talent in his career so far but was outfoxed by a known difficult opponent. I think if he pushes for a rematch there will need to be a serious overhaul in his tactics because he showed a total lack of imagination against this man. Another worrying thing was that he looked tired going into the championship rounds. I remember a similar thing happening against Julio Pablo Chacon when he won the WBO belt.

I'm sure with Scott's undoubted, rugged determination he can come again but whether he can seriously contest a place in the world elite remains to be seen. He'll have to go and take a long hard look at his self, because this loss will hurt, and make sure he comes to the right decision. If, and I repeat if, he has secretly had trouble making the weight he should undoubtedly move up a weight division. A fighter struggling to make weight can be detrimental to his career but, like I said before, he has not mentioned this him self so cannot really be used as an excuse at this stage. Paul Spadafora recently gave up his long defended alphabet to move up a division because he felt the weight making was playin havoc with his body. No shame in that.

In closing I would like to wish both Manuel Medina and Scott Harrison good luck with their careers. One has been there, done it and is looking to do it again. The other was on the way to doing it but has come unstuck but if he follows in the footsteps of the man who beat him he wont be doing half bad.