Audley Harrison

[Spud]

A lot of people I know ridicule Audley Harrison’s career.

Is it a weak argument to say he was an olympic gold medalist then as a professional he won a european title and fought David Haye for the world title.

Did Audley Harrison deserve the stick … whatever side of the fence you sit can you explain why?

[margaret thatcher]

the prizefighter king , absolutely no blueprint to beat him in that format

[Ruthless-RKO]

A lot of people I know ridicule Audley Harrison’s career.

Is it a weak argument to say he was an olympic gold medalist then as a professional he won a european title and fought David Haye for the world title.

Did Audley Harrison deserve the stick … whatever side of the fence you sit can you explain why?

Not every am does well as a pro.. I guess he was just heavily hyped by the media since the Olympics..

[Coco]

If you want to ridicule every fight who wasn't world champ....

[margaret thatcher]

he obviously had a far better career than most pros. has some accomplishments there and beat some decent fighters. but not being a world class fighter, or even a strong euro level one, it obviously will be a letdown based on the olympic gold and hype he got

never won at a level above the domestic circle jerk scene of williams-sprott-skelton-etc.

his performance vs haye is ridiculed to this day and is one of the worst title challenges you'll see

one thing i give him props for is his perseverance. he took some bad losses but then had some of his career highs after it looked finished for him. and of course within possibly his biggest win, for the euro title, he was fighting one armed and waay down to sprott before finding that bomb (*not a reference to an incendiary device at a concert)

[margaret thatcher]

kinda reminds me of charles martin, a perfectly decent fighter, who through his own ridiculous self hype gets treated as more of a joke. chuck didnt have the olympic gold of course, though he was a top usa amateur

[Steveh583]

Every member of team gb since owes him a debt of gratitude for his campaigning. That’s his true legacy.

Great Am, as a pro underachieved and tried to to walk his own path to his detriment.

2 x prizefighters and a heroic European title win yet Dave Allen seems to garner more respect.

[MasterG]

If he hadn't won a gold medal I'm sure we would be reassessing his career in a different light.

The gold medal was the stigma imo.

[ILikeBeer]

A highly successful amateur, not so much as a professional.

Even the achievements you mentioned. Fighting Haye clearly wasn't deserved, and shouldn't count. That should've been obvious to everyone even before the fight happened. The European title win. Yes, it was legitimate, but bear in mind he didn't beat a reigning champion, never defended it and was being outboxed until the knockout. Not saying it wasn't a good achievement or anything, or that he didn't deserve. But there will still be some things you could question about.

Having said that, I think it was the hype surrounding him that got him the stick.

Some of it lead to unrealistic expectations. For example, putting his first dozen or so fights on BBC and as main events. There were a lot of fans that were expecting him to be fighting the Klitschkos or Lennox Lewis almost from his debut. Partly the BBC/media's fault for talking him up straight from the off. Partly the fault of an element of fans who were expecting too much. Though some of it was on Audley as well. I think he had a slight delusion that he was a great fighter, and was going to go all the way. That clearly wasn't true. And people got a bit fed up of him keep acting the big'un.

If he'd been more humble, been put on in the middle of the card maybe he'd have been cut a bit more slack, who knows?

Looking back, I do have a fondness for those days. As a student, with only five channels, I was always happy to have boxing on BBC to have a beer or two late night with. Actually enjoyed those days, if you took them for what they were.

[margaret thatcher]

ya, if you look at the actual details behind everything, not sure id use the haye title shot as a positive in arguing aud's case

[rhino222]

so.....Dave Allen has had a mention on this thread because he possibly commands more public respect than big Aud.

But would Dave Allen have KO'd Audley back in the day? I think over 10 rounds Dave would have caught him, and Audleys chops were very questionable.

[maverick23]

so.....Dave Allen has had a mention on this thread because he possibly commands more public respect than big Aud.

But would Dave Allen have KO'd Audley back in the day? I think over 10 rounds Dave would have caught him, and Audleys chops were very questionable.

Nope. Audley would have Ko’d him or fought defensively like Price did against Allen.

Allen was an average heavyweight who got outboxed by Lenroy Thomas and went life and death with Bracamonte.

I’m not saying I thought Audley was anything special but he was European champ and a level or two above Dave.

[deadpan]

I would argue that he overachieved at the olympics. Winning the gold with a busted hand was pretty impressive.

[littlepug]

Good fighter, anyone criticising should try being a fighter themselves.

[maverick23]

I would argue that he overachieved at the olympics. Winning the gold with a busted hand was pretty impressive.

He fought great in the Olympics. Won his fight by stoppage in the 4th when down on points against a former world champ Lezin (and 3 time European champ), a good win in the quarters, won the semi against Vidoz on the mercy rule and then won the final by a wide margin with a dodgy hand. Everyone he fought I think had medalled or went on to medal in the world champs.

He showed every shot in the book and wasn’t afraid to let his hands go. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case as a pro.

[jameswilson]

Suffered early because he didn’t want to go with allegedly. Also got stupidly injured doing some bench press challenge between his first and second fight.

Was never going to win a World title even in that infuriating era. Even someone like Chagaev would have beaten him every time. Trying to think of the weakest champ during his career? Sultan Ibragimov maybe but his reign I think coincided with the period of his career where he would literally throw nothing so he’d probably lose that one points as well.

[vidal]

His mouth wrote cheques

[deadpan]

Suffered early because he didn’t want to go with allegedly. Also got stupidly injured doing some bench press challenge between his first and second fight.

Was never going to win a World title even in that infuriating era. Even someone like Chagaev would have beaten him every time. Trying to think of the weakest champ during his career? Sultan Ibragimov maybe but his reign I think coincided with the period of his career where he would literally throw nothing so he’d probably lose that one points as well.

I've mused on this many a time. Was there ever a golden window where he could have wangled his way to a world belt against a lesser light. I always come up short too.

I'm pretty sure Sosnowski would have swiftly forced him into his shell in the originally arranged Euro title tilt.

I didn't know his injury was bench press derived. Do you have any extra details? What a silly sod!

[TheGman]

A lot of people I know ridicule Audley Harrison’s career.

Is it a weak argument to say he was an olympic gold medalist then as a professional he won a european title and fought David Haye for the world title.

Did Audley Harrison deserve the stick … whatever side of the fence you sit can you explain why?

He had all the potential to be a nightmare for every heavy out there,6 foot 5 southpaw could box but believed his own press.
It's like every fighter,while their career is still going we always bash them,especially in the uk but when they retire you can then reflect on their career for what it was and Audley had a better than average career. What didn't help him though was when he got Frank Bruno into teh ring with herbie hide and underhandedly tried to make fun of them,that's not cool.

[jameswilson]

Suffered early because he didn’t want to go with allegedly. Also got stupidly injured doing some bench press challenge between his first and second fight.

Was never going to win a World title even in that infuriating era. Even someone like Chagaev would have beaten him every time. Trying to think of the weakest champ during his career? Sultan Ibragimov maybe but his reign I think coincided with the period of his career where he would literally throw nothing so he’d probably lose that one points as well.

I've mused on this many a time. Was there ever a golden window where he could have wangled his way to a world belt against a lesser light. I always come up short too.

I'm pretty sure Sosnowski would have swiftly forced him into his shell in the originally arranged Euro title tilt.

I didn't know his injury was bench press derived. Do you have any extra details? What a silly sod!

I think I heard Barry McGuigan say something to that effect. Some daft macho ‘I bet I can lift more than you’ thing just after his pro debut and obviously the other guy was probably a roid freak who could do a lot of weight. Obviously I don’t know for sure tho.


There’s 2 big what ifs I’d love to be able to go back and change.

1 what if Matt Skelton didn’t pull out of their fight through injury, Danny Williams took Skeltons place in the fight where Audley stopped Williams early.

2. What happens if Scott Gammer takes the fight instead of Michael Sprott first time around. I reckon Audley would have stopped Gammer and won the British title in the process. I think that’s the start of the most obvious route to a different World title shot for him. Obviously can’t work out who the belt holders were then but I’ll take a guess that Sam Peter was in the mix. I reckon Audley would go into that fight positive he was the favourite and he’d subsequently get stood brutally on his head.

[ILikeBeer]

He had all the potential to be a nightmare for every heavy out there,6 foot 5 southpaw could box but believed his own press.
It's like every fighter,while their career is still going we always bash them,especially in the uk but when they retire you can then reflect on their career for what it was and Audley had a better than average career. What didn't help him though was when he got Frank Bruno into teh ring with herbie hide and underhandedly tried to make fun of them,that's not cool.

I legitimately don't think he was trying to make fun of them.

At the time, they were both touted as potential opponents for him. Realistically, Bruno was never going to come out of retirement to fight Audley, but it was in all the papers that he was considering it.

I really think Audley's intent was to promote and gage interest in each fight. Maybe in retrospect, it was a bit of a daft thing to do, but I think promotion was never Audley's strong point, no matter how much he wanted to do it himself.

Hide kicking off because people preferred Bruno to him wasn't necessarily Audley's fault. But, I think Audley wasn't doing it maliciously, even if it wasn't what you'd call a good idea.

[cormack]

chinless prick

[liamlion]

I remember speaking with Rob McCracken circa 2006 and I remember him telling me that Audley was scared of his own shadow (his exact words). He also told me that Amir Khan couldn’t take a punch.

I have respect for Audley as a fighter. And as someone said above, his own self-hype set him up for a bit of fall and ridicule.

[dookus]

Not, in objective reality, at the level of European champion or world title challenger (even if both on paper). But British level is still nothing to sniff at. I wonder how much more he'd have shown offensively without pulling that ridiculous weightlifting stunt (while already being very old for a new pro).

[JamesPhilips]

A very lucky man. To win the gold. Weak division. Levin winning and terrible stoppage.