Audley keeps his purse

[gobbles]

And quite right too

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

Let him keep his money - I for one will never watch him box again.

[Andypittcov]

Doesn't this open the door to similar poor title challenges in the future??

[gobbles]

Doesn't this open the door to similar poor title challenges in the future??

No

[Andypittcov]

Doesn't this open the door to similar poor title challenges in the future??

No

why

[SteveDow]

The guy is a complete disgrace and deserved to have some of the purse withheld.

[gobbles]

Doesn't this open the door to similar poor title challenges in the future??

No

why

Because he did try. He got up from a knockdown. Just because he froze, that doesn't mean he didn't try. In fact it rather closes the door to such poor title challenges in the future, on PPV anyway, because the public are unlikely to be so gullible again.

[IRLangmaid25]

I too believe that Audley Harrison froze on the night when he challenged David Haye for the WBA strap simply because he had put so much pressure on himself with his talk of it being "my destiny" and all that jazz was that he cracked

[goldenears]

No

why

Because he did try. He got up from a knockdown. Just because he froze, that doesn't mean he didn't try. In fact it rather closes the door to such poor title challenges in the future, on PPV anyway, because the public are unlikely to be so gullible again.

This. End of discussion.

[sendo]

He took some hard shots and went down, disgraceful to even talk about witholding his purse.

Yes he wasn't aggressive, but anyone who followed his career knew that he has always been terrified of getting caught on the counter.

[Andypittcov]

No

why

Because he did try. He got up from a knockdown. Just because he froze, that doesn't mean he didn't try. In fact it rather closes the door to such poor title challenges in the future, on PPV anyway, because the public are unlikely to be so gullible again.

Yes so any challenger who goes into a title fight in Britain now knows he doesn't have to fight because he'll always be able to say I froze like audley

[goldenears]

why

Because he did try. He got up from a knockdown. Just because he froze, that doesn't mean he didn't try. In fact it rather closes the door to such poor title challenges in the future, on PPV anyway, because the public are unlikely to be so gullible again.

Yes so any challenger who goes into a title fight in Britain now knows he doesn't have to fight because he'll always be able to say I froze like audley

who seriously goes into a fight to have their head caved in by a heavyweight world champion? or any champion? As already pointed out, anyone who has seen audley fight before wouldn't have been surprised by his cowering or his reluctance, it's his instinctive style, it's not like he took a dive. He got smashed and then got up to get smashed again.

Out of his depth? Yes. Disgraceful mismatch? Yes. Brave/Stupid to get in the ring with Haye (Yes and Yes). But a cheat who deserves not to be paid for training hard and getting in the ring. No.

[Andypittcov]

Yeah fair enough goldenears and gobbles but at the end of the day I was only implying the decision could encourage very defensive challenges really,never said anything about audley or anyone else cheating

[Carbo]

The thing is, if you're going to fix a fight, why would you take ten punches to go down, and then get back up and take some more. Harrison would have stayed down after the first knockdown if it had been fixed, surely.

Whether it was actually fixed or not, it was still a swimming match, because Harrison is no better than 50-50 against area- and British-title level opposition, and Haye is, for this era, world class.

I mean, Audley must have had the easiest defence in the world: "er, guys, look at my record and my fights, and look at Hayes."

It was a poor, poor mismatch, and the BBBofC should perhaps look at themselves for sanctioning it before investigating Haye and Harrison because -- Shock! Horror! -- Harrison folded as soon as Haye attacked.

[Srebmun]

Yeah fair enough goldenears and gobbles

Thought I was reading the Disney forum there for a second.

[JC]

In fact it rather closes the door to such poor title challenges in the future, on PPV anyway, because the public are unlikely to be so gullible again.

Not so sure about that. The fight sold so well partly because many of the occasional boxing fans didn't understand the difference in levels. All some people knew was that Audley had a gold medal so must be good and assumed if he was fighting for the title he deserved to, as you would with most other sports.

Another non-competitive but sellable fight will come up again eventually.

[willardx]

Look, he was the European champ so the shot at the title was fair. The fact is he fought pretty much the same as he always had but this time he was against someone significantly better. Only people that got sucked in by the hype have got the arse about it. He deserves the cash and hopefully he'll disappear tho i must say i would be intrigued if he was matched against fury, larry, dallas or chisora!

[Final round]

Good, they signed to fight Audley and he was true to form. He should be paid.

[Exoddus]

They had to pay him. Everyone and his mother knew the guy was going to be too scared to throw a punch (David Haye counter). You don't go from being bullied in the ring by Coleman Barrett to beating someone like David Haye.

[bigjack]

Yeah fair enough goldenears and gobbles but at the end of the day I was only implying the decision could encourage very defensive challenges really,never said anything about audley or anyone else cheating

The big difference here is that Audley was already wealthy before the fight,whereas most world title challengers need to win the world title to make some decent money, therefore they are unlikely to put up such a pathetic challenge as they need the win,not just the fight.

[oliverfennell]

It's fair enough. Harrison's punishment will be in him having to take an enormous drop in pay for any future fights - that is if anyone will employ him at all.

In any case, he was paid by Hayemaker Promotions and I'm sure they feel they got value for money from him on a commercial level. 1.5m for his part in hyping a fight to almost unprecedented proportions was repaid many times over in PPV buys and ticket sales.

[Crease]

I was glad to see that Harrison was allowed to keep his purse. Just because if he had been stripped of it, it would have opened up a helluva can of worms for the sport of boxing...
And the question becomes, where does it all end?

Should we keep Mr X purse because he didn't throw enough punches?
Should we keep Mr X purse because he was too cautious?
Should we keep Mr X purse because he didn't engage enough?
Should we keep Mr X purse because there wasn't enough actonin the fight?

Can you see what I'm saying...
We might not argee with the way that a boxer went about a fight, that doesn't mean he should get his money took off him.

[Crease]

As for Fraudley's punishment... That is self-evident. He will never get another major world titleshot. His dreams have been dashed.

And he has no-one to blame but himself.

[stujones]

As for Fraudley's punishment... That is self-evident. He will never get another major world titleshot. His dreams have been dashed.

And he has no-one to blame but himself.

Its a never say never world though. Ray Austin came within a whisker of a second world title tilt and he fought equally as pathetically.

Tony Thompson also.

[Kit]

When has Audley ever displayed aggression and workrate?
Surely if they kept his purse for this one then they would have had to take from his previous 30 contests too.