18.02.07 – By Stuart Cornwell: Apparently the fight I witnessed Saturday night between Michael Sprott and Audley Harrison produced a result that surprised, shocked and stunned the ‘experts’ and upset the estimations of the bookmakers. Prior to tuning in to the live ITV broadcast I had not read any of the written previews or bothered to check the bookies’ odds so I was oblivious to the prevailing ‘expert opinion.’ As far as I was concerned Sprott-Harrison was a 50-50 fight. The only real surprise of the night for me was to find out Audley Harrison was tipped as the heavy favourite, with Sprott reportedly a 5-1 underdog and being firmly cast in the “stepping-stone” role. Had I missed something?
I have followed Audley Harrison’s pro career from the beginning. Over the last six years and 23 professional fights he has produced nothing to suggest he should have been favoured so heavily over a fighter like Michael Sprott.
His 21 wins were over a poor calibre of fighter – the performances themselves were mostly uninspiring, often pathetic. Was Harrison’s inflated reputation still feeding off the fact that he won the Olympic gold medal as an amateur six-and-a-half years ago? Or were people really blown over by how he destroyed the washed-up, under-prepared, forever fat and increasingly mellow Danny Williams last time out?
Sprott’s devastating left hook in the third round rendered Harrison senseless in spectacular style. The punch itself was a bolt from nowhere, the finish itself was sudden and dramatic, but the result – a KO win for Sprott – should have come as no surprise. Michael Sprott is a quiet man, not a celebrity fighter, no Olympic gold medal, no pretentious manufactured personality; he is just a solid and capable experienced professional fighter. Coming into the ring prepared, focussed and confident, he would clearly represent a test of a type that Harrison had thus far never managed to pass. Conversely, for Sprott, Harrison was just another fighter. Sprott has fought many fighters who are as good as, better than, or a lot better than Audley Harrison – and often in front of hostile crowds abroad.
A quick look over the recent form of the two fighters should have convinced any objective oddsmaker that Sprott’s chance of a win was at least equal to Harrison’s chance of a win. In their previous six outings respectively, Sprott had gone 3-3, Harrison had gone 4-2. Statistically that is a slight edge to Harrison, but on closer inspection it is apparent that Sprott had probably fought the tougher fights. Five of Sprott’s previous six fights had been in Germany against Germans or German-based fighters – notorious circumstances to hope for a win on points, yet Sprott had managed to outpoint two Germans in their own backyard and more than a few observers thought he had been robbed in a fight against the Ukrainian Vladmir Virchis, now the European champion, in Austria. On the other hand, Harrison’s best result by far was the win over Danny Williams, who was on short-notice and had not looked much good in a while, truth be told. Sprott has beaten Danny Williams too, three years ago, when Danny had a legitimate claim to being the UK’s finest heavyweight.
Skim back through both their career records in their entirety and you will see the same story unfolding – Sprott fighting a lot of tough fights with mixed results, often on short notice and in hostile lands; Harrison fighting easy orchestrated campaigns one after another and still failing to impress. The two are like chalk and cheese. The solid pro journeyman battling through imperfect conditions with no favours from the matchmakers but all the time learning, improving, believing in his own ability. And the over-protected ‘star’ fighter, wasting him time with meaningless easy fights, picking up under-earned paydays and establishing a celebrity career in front of a professional one, not learning anything or displaying any improvement whatsoever. Neither fighter deserves to be thought of automatically as world class or particularly special; only one of them however should be viewed as a ‘real’ proven fighter.
So where did the mistaken opinion of the ‘experts’ come from? The form book and career records of the two did not favour Harrison in the cold light of day. Surely, the pundits and bookmakers do not base their predictions on Harrison’s own arrogance and self-aggrandizement. I do sense a common trend among the boxing ‘experts’ to continue to go with the over-hyped ‘star’ fighters against the solid pro journeymen a long time after the ‘star’ has proven himself less than stellar. And had not ‘Harrison the star’ really proven himself a lost cause a long time earlier? He had looked awful in his first contest with a fat Danny Williams, and had followed that lame defeat with a lethargic loss to American Dominick Guinn, himself a famously lethargic and wasteful prospect. Personally, I had written off Harrison as a future world class fighter after seeing him look ordinary against an ordinary fighter called Tomasz Bonin. Harrison is not rubbish but even weak fighters can bother him with a modicum of speed and aggression. Harrison has never been good enough to be heavily favoured over Sprott by any reasonable and objective estimation.
So it remains a mystery to me as to why the odds and the almost certain predictions were as they were. I suppose some will answer that Audley Harrison has so much “natural talent,” tons of “potential.” I do not see it. Since the Olympics he has rarely looked much better than ordinary against some less-than-ordinary professionals. Yes, he is big, athletic, not too slow for his size, and he can box a bit and he hits okay. But his skills are not the well-rounded skills of a professional, he is not intense, and he does not seem to want to fight when he is being aggressed upon. He has the ego of a fighter but lacks the heart and the passion.
Harrison did not look too bad for a few minutes Saturday night. He did not look too good either, despite the familiarly one-sided commentary of the ITV broadcast team. He managed to knock Sprott down in the opening round but Sprott remained composed and unhurt. Harrison’s obvious wish to replicate his victory over Williams was nullified by the fact that Sprott was clearly sharper, more confident and more difficult to hit than was Williams. And when Sprott came forward Harrison went back. The second and third rounds Sprott gradually became busier and busier, overcoming a massive reach deficit to land his own shots and bull the heavier Harrison about a bit on the inside. I thought Sprott was looking the cleverer fighter at the time of the sudden ending, though the ringside ITV team seemed to suggest Harrison was beginning to dominate. Either I was missing a lot from watching at home on TV or the commentators were swayed by their own ‘expert’ bias and script.
In summary, I do not think anyone should have been surprised by the result. I think hype has overtaken common sense when it comes to the ‘experts’ predicting fight results. A fighter who occupies a lot of copy space, such as Harrison, can go from zero to hero and back again in the ‘expert’ estimations almost on a bi-annual basis. It is about time the ‘experts’ started to judge all fighters equally on the same criteria. Looking at Sprott and Harrison’s overall calibre, form and proven ability, this fight ought to have been viewed as an even-money proposition. With a 50-50 fight like this no result would have surprised me.