By James Slater: Big Frank Bruno, the British hero who won the WBC heavyweight championship with a gruelling points win over the (amazingly) still active Oliver McCall back in 1995, has revealed to SKY Sports how he thinks underdog Audley Harrison might just pull off the upset against David Haye next month.
“A-Force” is a big betting underdog, yet Bruno, still one of the most beloved British sportsmen in history, points to the fact that the 39-year-old is both a southpaw and a natural heavyweight. Frank, who retired after losing his belt to the come backing Mike Tyson in March of 1996 (in his first defence of the belt he won by seeing off McCall), says he hopes the best man wins on Nov. 13th, but that he fancies it just might be the 2000 Olympic gold medallist.
“I like David Haye, I like his style,” Bruno said. “I don’t like the way he’s rabbitting on, the way he’s jumping around saying different things. But I’m not his manager, I’m not his dad, I’m not his guru. But I wish he’d cool it down a little, because that [too much talking] can give the sport a bad name. But he’s a good fighter.
“But you’ve got to look at Audley’s credibility. He’s a southpaw and he’s a natural born heavyweight With that left hand he can connect. That sways [him] my way. He’s a lot better than some people give him credit for. But I don’t have nothing against either of them, we’re all boxers, we all eat from the same table. But I fancy Audley Harrison in the fight.”
One or two other fellow or former pros also tip Harrison to cause the shock next month (Derek Chisora, who looks to cause his own, even bigger shock, against world champ Wladimir Klitschko in December, for one example), but the lion’s share of the experts are still siding with “The Hayemaker” to keep his WBA title.
Meanwhile, Harrison arrived back in the UK yesterday, three weeks earlier than he had wanted to. After having been training at altitude in Big Bear in the U.S, Harrison says he was asked to come back to the UK by Hayemaker Promotions – “what for I don’t know,” Audley said.
However, the challenger feels he was demanded back by Team-Haye due to them wanting to disrupt his preparations. Adam Booth, Haye’s trainer and manager, denies this, and says his fighter needs no such advantages to win the fight. But Harrison did say the fact that he was forced to return to the U.K earlier than he wanted to proves “they are worried.”
“A-Force,” who celebrated his 39th birthday yesterday, says the disruption to his training will not stop him from winning. I’m going to knock David Haye out,” Harrison told Sky Sports News. “For real!”
For what it’s worth, I still believe Haye will get the job done quickly and impressively in November (in the first three-rounds), but experts like Bruno are now on the challenger’s side.