10.12.06 – By Bobb Webb: Okay, with the shouting over, let’s get last night’s clash between Danny Williams and Audley Harrison into some kind of perspective. When previewing this fight, taking into account their last outing and Harrison’s dismal showings in that fight and in his subsequent loss to Dominic Guinn, I could only predict, perhaps lamely, that Harrison would either show us something – or nothing, again. Danny Williams, on the other hand, was a rather too well known quantity.
It was always going to be a case of in what guise Harrison would turn up. Frankly, from what he’d shown us so far, there was little hope that he’d improve over his last performances, because he never had done so, at least not against that level of opponent.
Prior to 2005 he’d predictably won against a conveyor belt of mediocre opposition, sometimes struggling inappropriately, and always with a minimum of entertainment provided to his despairing and diminishing band of fans, let alone the greater boxing world. To be fair, he had shown enormous fighting heart and skills in press conferences and interviews, but he had singularly failed to ignite belief in his ability to translate the words into actions in the ring. Simply put, he was all potential and no solid achievements.
Sure, Harrison had all the gifts, it was apparent for some time. He was a southpaw, , he had learned the boxing skills and mastered them as an amateur to the extent of winning a Gold at the 2000 Olympics; and, at 18 stone or thereabouts he was even bigger than Lennox Lewis but not as freakishly tall as a Nicolai Valuev. He was approaching 30 when he turned pro but with the receding age criteria for Heavyweights at that time, he had a few years to learn the pro game and still, maybe reach the World Heavyweight Championship before he was truly too old for it. But he had to get a move on. Time was not on his side. But as he went through the ranks of not too good learning fights, slowly it began to dawn that maybe he was just going along for the ride and the million quid BBC TV signing fee.
Worse was to come. In his 20th pro fight, a year ago today, Harrison finally stepped in with a Heavyweight from the upper levels of then current domestic boxing, Danny Williams. For nearly the whole watching world Harrison dismally, abjectly, confirmed what we all, including myself by this time, suspected: he was a busted flush. He followed that poor ‘performance’ with a UD loss to Dominic Guinn and, apart from his die-hard fans, was universally condemned as a joke, a fraud, and a cash hungry cynical deceiver of the great British boxing public desperate for a successor to Lennox Lewis at world level. He had every attribute one desires in a prospect at Heavyweight, bar one: He seemed to lack a fighting heart.
Harrison’s jab rarely had snap in it. He extended his southpaw lead and barely threw it with intent, on occasions simply placing it rather gently against his opponent’s face either as a measuring yard or a device to bamboozle and keep his opponent from moving forward. It was less a jab, more a shoving stick. His aggression you could measure in nano units. He would fire left crosses when his usually over-matched opponent became too brave and sometimes they actually scored a KO win for him, but it was all frustrating stuff. He just didn’t seem to want to mix it.
Come their first meeting last December, the usual Harrison showed up but, against a man of Danny’s calibre, was even less effective and more reluctant to mix it up. Danny, after all, can punch. He’d also shown tremendous courage and chin against an admittedly faded Mike Tyson before swatting him in the 4th round with a barrage of unanswered heavy punches to force Tyson to take the count sitting on his arse complaining about a knee injury which may or may not have been genuine. Danny’s punch eventually found its mark against the reluctant Harrison who went down for a count but re-emerged in the 11th and 12th with some much overdue aggression. He still, though, lost (only) on a split decision. What it seems to have demonstrated to Audley was that, yes, he could be knocked down but he could also get back up and carry the fight to his opponent. In that fight, however he discovered it far too late.
I can’t pretend to understand either fighter although, after last night’s fight at the Excel Arena in London’s Docklands, as they say, Harrison has come some way towards explaining himself. But Danny’s career, it can be gathered from his post fight interview, is all but over, which was always going to be the case for the loser of this latest contest.
The winner’s lot? Audley Harrison has at last shown something of the potential that he always claimed. But we must put this win into perspective. It was his best performance by far against possibly the second best opponent he has faced but Danny Williams is not the best of the British Heavyweights, let alone a force at World level. To a great extent, Williams was a known quantity, not only to the watching public but crucially to Audley Harrison. It was also in a sense another learning fight (what fight isn’t?) for Harrison.
Audley appears to have shed whatever demons possessed him last year – although nothing has been offered in way of explanation for the previous five years of his career – and, according to him, as usual, we should now get behind him on his ride to the undisputed World Heavyweight title. Not so fast, I say.
Although this was an impressive win and a far better performance from him, one swallow doesn’t make a summer. He really has to build on this one and fast. He did what he should have done against Williams given the calibre of Danny and his own god-given attributes. No more than that. He did what he should have done. Now let’s see the next one before we all rush to acclaim him as the real deal at last.