Harrison-Hersisia: No Better Time To Deliver

19.03.04 – By Janne Romppainen – It is no news to anybody that heavyweight division has a problem. Lennox Lewis has retired, other top fighters are growing old, there are no real newcomers on the scene. Perhaps the most hyped hopeful of the field, Joe Mesi has struggled badly in his last two fights and no other prospect has been overly impressed either. If there has ever been a good time for a new prospect to make a statement, it is now. Enter Audley “A-Force” Harrison, the British Olympic gold medallist and heavyweight prospect who will fight for the so-called WBF “championship of the world” against Dutch Richel Hersisia on Wembley stadium, England on upcoming Saturday night.

Harrison’s career has been under magnifying glass from the beginning. In the Olympic games of Sydney 2000 Harrison marched impressively to super heavyweight gold medal and the hopes for his professional career were held high. Too high in fact. Many over-eager fans expected that Harrison would have been totally ready as a fighter in his professional debut and failed to understand that even the best of amateur prospects are novices in the beginning. After Harrison had tougher-than-expected struggle in his second fight against a less-known Derek McCafferty, he faced huge criticism. There were talks about “Fraudley” and “wrong alarm”, and even though Harrison has bettered his fighting continuously after that, he hasn’t been totally able to shrug off the bad reputation.

In my opinion Harrison is probably the most promising up-and-comer of the moment even if his career development has been too slow in the eyes of some. For a fighter of 14 starts, he is extremely complete. If you compare him to Lennox Lewis at that stage of his career, Harrison is clearly much more ready as a fighter. Harrison is a modern-day like big guy at 6,5 ½ and 250lbs. He moves well, has a good rhythm in the ring, he is pretty fast for a man of his size and his technique is among the best of the division at the moment. Add these factors to his reach and the southpaw stance of his and you will see that he is a difficult guy to fight against for anyone. He usually boxes behind a long, sharp jab and puts up good combinations whenever he gets the chance. His toughness has yet to be tested at the highest level of course and some have questioned his conditioning, but so far there is not much to criticize about him. In his latest fights he has easily overcome usually durable veterans such as Brian Nix and Quinn Navarre. The obvious cause of concern for him is his rather high age of 32, but as Harrison’s big advertiser and also one of his idols Lennox Lewis most recently has shown, that is not much of an age for a heavyweight.

Even though he is the clear favourite, Harrison enters the bout as the challenger. The defending titlist, Dutchman Richel Hersisia is certainly not going to give up easily. Hersisia himself is a considerable prospect on the European level and there have already been talks about him fighting for the continental title. He is unbeaten at 21-0 (16) and his fans in both Netherlands and also in Scandinavia where he has fought regularly are excited about his chances in this bout. Hersisia is a huge fellow at about 6’6 and 235lbs. In his fights he comes usually slowly forwards, throwing heavy hooks with his both hands. So far he has overcome all of his opponents with this strategy, although it has to be noted that his list of opponents defeated is not among the strongest. In perhaps his biggest win to date he overcame a useful Finn Sami Elovaara by a 12-round decision, who a couple of months later was stopped on cuts by American journeyman Sedrick Fields. Hersisia is not a one-punch KO artist, but he does possess heavy hands. He isn’t the fleetest of his feet nor the fastest from his hands, which might spell trouble for him against Harrison. Also his chin is a bit of a suspect even though he has been officially down only once so far in his career.

Hersisia is not without a chance here, but Harrison should be able to take home the victory. His movement, technique and speed seem to be so far ahead of the Dutchman that it should be defining. I expect him to stick Hersisia with his jab, out-land him in the early rounds and then end the matters with his fine uppercut in about nine rounds. Hersisia’s best chance is to take the bout to the later rounds. Harrison has never fought 12 rounds and there is a chance that he might grow tired at the late stages of the bout especially if Hersisia is able to land shots to his body as he usually does. Also Hersisia is probably the biggest puncher Harrison has faced so far and his chin might get a good test on Saturday.

Hersisia is a step up in competition for Harrison and it clearly is a step to the right direction, but it still is a long way from where he should be with all that talent. At the end of the year he should be where his fellow hopefuls such as Mesi and Dominick Guinn have been lately, which is in the American main event fights. If everything goes as it has gone so far, I do believe that Harrison can make it all the way to the top, although it still takes plenty of hard work from him. However if Hersisia wins this bout, he could be the one to approach the big circles next. The conqueror of the Olympic champion would definitely interest many. Even with a loss Hersisia stays among the better European prospects, so in a sense he has nothing to lose in here even though he is the one holding the title. Arrangement such as this usually means a good fight, hopefully we will also see one on Saturday.