British Boxing Investigating Haye-Harrison, Could Take Audley's £1 Million Purse
by Scott Christ on Nov 14, 2010 9:54 PM EST
in Boxing News Analysis
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The British Boxing Board of Control is looking into possibly withholding some or even all of Audley Harrison's £1 million purse from yesterday's "fight" against David Haye. Harrison
From The Sun:
British Boxing Board of Control secretary Robert Smith said: "It is a very difficult course to take to stop someone getting paid when they have just frozen. But rescinding some or all of Audley Harrison's purse is something which we will have to consider. You have to bear in mind it was such a let down for the 22,000 at the MEN Arena and the thousands watching at home." ... "The Board have rescinded purses on many occasions when we feel a fighter has not tried. Harrison just froze. He did nothing all night. It was a let down for the fans and the TV audience."
Promoters Frank Maloney and Frank Warren both had strong words about Harrison's "performance," and certainly we were as critical as everybody else after the non-fight. It was a disgrace. A farce.
But here's the rub: It had been a farce since the moment the fight was signed. Only delusional or misinformed people thought this would be competitive, or that suddenly Audley Harrison was going to show up and do something really, truly big for the first time in his professional career.
Harrison is 39 years old. He turned pro in 2001. He has done almost nothing but disappoint in his entire professional career. Trying to be nice, I said yesterday that he did win a Prizefighter tournament and the European title in 2009 and 2010, respectively. But so what? No disrespect to the European title, but so what? He lucked out a one-punch win over a faded Michael Sprott, and to win Prizefighter, he beat a trio of never-gonna-bes. I don't like to be as harsh as that for the most part, but seriously, WHAT WAS ANYONE EXPECTING?
Now you might say, "Hey, but he didn't even try." He's Audley Harrison. He's been nicknamed "Fraudley" and "A-Farce" for a reason. He's a non-contender and at his best has been a domestic-level contender with talent that has never produced results.
Don't be mad at Audley Harrison for being himself. The BBBofC allowed this ridiculous fight because it would make money. The WBA did the same. And those who bought into it got what was probably the definitive statement of Audley Harrison's career. That statement? "Much ado about absolutely, positively nothing." He didn't deserve the fight, but it was allowed by the BBBofC and the WBA. If someone thought this was going to be competitive, they were wrong from the start.
But Audley Harrison did not throw that fight in any way. He just froze in the moment. He had no confidence. He was afraid of David Haye. The big stage summed him up quite well. All Audley Harrison did was go out there and be Audley Harrison. There was nothing surprising about what happened in Manchester. This is the sort of thing that everyone signed up for when they put the fight together, and talk of rescinding his purse is the sort of after-the-fact nonsense that I just can't get behind. More powerful men than Audley Harrison are to blame for this fight happening, and for the hype that made out as if it were anything but a domestic money grab from moment one.
Seriously, who didn't know that Audley Harrison was an unworthy title challenger?
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These pimps are so pimp-happy they are pimping the corpse of this dumb fight in the morgue. Apparently, Maloney and Warren think the villagers should grab their torches and pitchforks because this wasn’t the crown jewel in British Heavyweight boxing they kept telling everyone it was gonna be.
In other news, Shannon Briggs has a medical excuse for losing to Vitali Klitschko, and the sun came up this morning.
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
They’re also investigating David Haye who claims he bet on himself to win by 3rd round KO and therefore carried Audley through the first two rounds.
Hey, if they wanna take everyone’s money, fine. Also give a full refund to anyone who still has a ticket stub or sends in a copy of their Sky Box Office bill. Then I’ll be on board.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Nov 14, 2010 11:09 PM EST up reply actions
I'm one of the
fools who bought this and I wouldn’t mind my money back at all. I had a few friends over and we watched it. Watched Audrey get killed, asked if he’d even thrown ten punches – was slightly amused by Haye claiming he’d bet on himself but I just sighed and saundered on till the Pacquio fight started.
I can't even begin to think why Harrison should get a single penny
Perhaps if they told him beforehand, “no fighty.. no money” he may have tried a little harder. But I doubt it.
I can’t even begin to think why Harrison should get a single penny
Again, something that should have been addressed by the suits before they allowed the fight to happen. It’s this attitude of “Oh heavens, Audley Harrison didn’t put up much fight at all!” that’s bothering me. Of course he didn’t! He’s Audley Harrison!
It’s like seeing an Uwe Boll movie, while fully aware of Uwe Boll’s entire career, and then getting pissed off that it sucks.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Nov 15, 2010 6:14 AM EST up reply actions
the thing is
everyone knows what Audley Harrison was before this fight. The surprising thing was that given it was his last shot, and that he was pretty lucky even to get that, you might have thought that (while not expecting a sudden whirlwind) he would not have been quite so…inert. To be fair, he was getting mauled in the 11th and especially the 12th against Sprott and not doing much at all before he landed, but this was a Huge profile fight and you would have thought that if he lacked heart (and most knew that after suffering his fights on the BBC) he would have had more pride.
I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘’Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'’ (Bernard Hopkins)
In a lovely world with unicorns, I might have expected Audley Harrison to back up his mouth for the first time in his professional career, but this isn’t a lovely world with unicorns. It’s a world where Audley Harrison gets a money fight he never deserved and then embarrassed suits act like they didn’t put him in the spot in the first place, knowing full well he had no business there and that something exactly like this might well happen. If Haye had finished him off in 27 seconds instead of three rounds, would we even be having this conversation? It would be the same thing except Haye didn’t dick around for two rounds and play patty-cake with him.
This is grandstanding to make the BBBofC look better. If they can find any evidence that he lost on purpose, then fine, take his purse and everyone’s purse and blacklist him. But you can’t fine someone for not being good.
At what point did the BBBofC and the WBA look at this matchup and see not dollar signs, but something that figured to be even remotely competitive? Everyone was grabbing the cash here, and now the BBBofC is acting like that wasn’t always the point of this farce. Audley Harrison has made a career of being great fun before the fight, tanking during it, and going away quietly for a while after.
And I realize they’re saying it’s been done before. If the circumstances were the same as this, it was wrong then, too.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Nov 15, 2010 7:32 AM EST up reply actions
The point is not that people expected Harrison to back up his mouth for the first time in a world full of unicorns. And no, if he was blown out within half a minute, we would not be having this conversation because the story would simply be that he was a few classes below Haye, which everyone knew anyway.
But this is not the same thing at all. Everyone KNOWS he is a very timid and tentative fighter. The very least people would have expected was the usual Audley, but his actual output and intent was far below Even That, and in the circumstances that was the surprise. He wouldn’t be getting fined for not being good. He would be getting fined for transparently not trying an iota. Its not like he was getting overwhelmed with punches or anything in the first couple of rounds.
Yes, the match-up made a lot of money, and while it was never going to be a competitive fight there have been lots of mismatches where the underdog at least tried and was out of his depth. He didn’t, and despite his history, we could have expected more.
Are they trying to makemselves look good? To an extent, possibly, but the stench from this will not help the sport in Britain and affect future revenues, so they have to at least look like they may do something.
I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘’Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'’ (Bernard Hopkins)
If Audley says, “I was feeling him out, I wanted to take him to the later rounds, but he caught me,” is there any way to prove he was lying? Hell, he can say he was playing mind games. Haye wasn’t throwing, maybe he wanted to time him for counters. After all once Haye did start throwing, he just wiped him out. His talk was to take Haye late in the fight and launch his left when he got tired.
I understand your view of this, and can see your point. I just don’t agree with even the idea of what they’re doing here, or what they’re threatening to do anyway.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Nov 15, 2010 5:45 PM EST up reply actions
Me neither.
I told Brian on the phone earlier that he’s clearly wrong on this…. ;)
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
I can’t even begin to think why Harrison should get a single penny
His contract?
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Nov 15, 2010 4:54 PM EST up reply actions
DC, surely somewhere in that "contract"
There may have be something, just maybe something, perhaps just a tiny hint… about Harrison actually having to “fight” for his £££££. ;-)
Then they'd have to prove that he didn't fight
Which, technically, he did. He may not have out up a fight, but, at least to some tiny degree, he did partake in the act of fighting.
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Nov 16, 2010 5:30 AM EST up reply actions
Well, no
Because the ref was there to, well, ref…
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Nov 16, 2010 4:37 PM EST up reply actions
I think you misunderstand both myself and Phil.
We’re actually both agreeing with you. :)
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
Well, I am anyway, and the tongue-in-cheek nature of Phill's posts indicates to me that he does too.... :)
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
We’re actually both agreeing with you
Well then, that’s the important thing here ^^
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Nov 17, 2010 4:10 PM EST up reply actions
You mean he got hit.
The same way that some guy getting punched in the face in a pub at 2am was technically ‘in a fight’.
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
That may as well b what I mean
I can get that maybe this guy doesn’t deserve the money, but, ast this stage, it would be unfair and unreasonable to take it away from him.
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Nov 16, 2010 4:38 PM EST up reply actions
And I totally agree with you.
Whether he was paid to be there and punch or be there and get punched, he still went in there and was Audley Harrison. As Scott asks: who else did they expect him to be? Mike Tyson?
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
He should be allowed to keep the purse...
…under the provision that he retires from boxing, and is never spoken about or speaks on the sport again.
The prospect of the BBBofC could take money away from him raises the terrifying specter that he could have to take more fights to get the money. Please, just let him go away and disappear.
Put it another way,
If I did a job for a customer and fucked it up, I wouldn’t expect to get paid. Why should he?
by Phill on Nov 15, 2010 6:37 AM EST via mobile reply actions
If you had proven to be as inept as Harrison at said job, you never would’ve gotten hired in the first place, and if they had hired you, that’s their fault.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Nov 15, 2010 7:23 AM EST up reply actions
Dead right too.
I wonder if Sky Sports with take that view!
by Phill on Nov 15, 2010 8:20 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Harrison wouldn't be the first
to talk himeself into a title challenge and fall woefully short. F*ck the BBBC. If they fail to perform they go bankrupt. Great role models.
Don't tell me I play bum notes - I KNOW!
by Randy Loathsome on Nov 15, 2010 1:14 PM EST reply actions
Harrison needs to get a Lawyer, and hope that he read his contract
I don’t really see a way that the Board can just take him private money, and if they can, then that’s an awful system.
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
agreed, frankly. Everybody knew who Audley Harrison was before this fight.
Also, as far as those saying “yea but he was so much worse here”. Well, the quality of oppossition was that much better. Audley sucks, they knew he sucks when they gave him a contract. Why should anyone gain a windfall for proceeding in the face of that knowledge?
"Yes Gina, I am a Wise Cracker"
Harrison could simply gather the tapes of his entire career, dump them on the judge’s bench and say “I rest my case, your honor.”
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
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