Audley Harrison

[MattCoke]

Price was hot property after that fight. Loads saying next world champion.

That was the one I got wrong personally.

Price's power at domestic level, his big knockouts. I thought he'd do well.

I couldn't believe it when he was knocked out against Thompson.

Don’t forget that Thompson went on to fail a drugs test.

[Kit]

Audley peaked at the Sydney Olymlpics, a great achievement that very few can ever accomplish ,but I can’t think of too many other games where he would have taken gold, right place right time.
I just feel in the pros, beyond the bluster he just didn’t fancy it n his heart of hearts, but seemed to enjoy being a celebrity and his own sound bites. Personally hand picking his own weak opponents proved he was totally risk adverse, just like his fighting style.
I heard from a coach, one of many who he auditioned to train after the olympics and it was clear Audley was only willing to hear what he wanted to hear.

[ILikeBeer]

Price was hot property after that fight. Loads saying next world champion.

That was the one I got wrong personally.

Price's power at domestic level, his big knockouts. I thought he'd do well.

I couldn't believe it when he was knocked out against Thompson.

Don’t forget that Thompson went on to fail a drugs test.

True.

But let's no delude ourselves that David Price is some World Class heavyweight. Which is what, at the time, I thought he might turn out to be.

[ILikeBeer]

Audley peaked at the Sydney Olymlpics, a great achievement that very few can ever accomplish ,but I can’t think of too many other games where he would have taken gold, right place right time.
I just feel in the pros, beyond the bluster he just didn’t fancy it n his heart of hearts, but seemed to enjoy being a celebrity and his own sound bites. Personally hand picking his own weak opponents proved he was totally risk adverse, just like his fighting style.
I heard from a coach, one of many who he auditioned to train after the olympics and it was clear Audley was only willing to hear what he wanted to hear.

I do think, in his defence, some of the criticisms of his opponents were harsh.

I mean, people were saying that about him from his debut. Nobody is fighting world class fighters in their first 10 fights or so. Of course he took journeymen on to learn the game. It was unrealistic to expect anything else.

Granted, it didn't help that all his six-round, learning curve fights were main events and were on the BBC. Drawing attention to himself in that way maybe gave people watching some unrealistic hopes of what level people were expecting for him to be at. And you could also argue that sometimes fighting people like Mark Krence, who was a decent fighter, but essentially a Cruiserweight, didn't help when you're the size Audley is.

But he did end up fighting some domestic level fighters, like Williams twice, Sprott, David Price (when he was considered a decent British prospect), and also fought Haye as World Champion and Wilder when he was on the way up. Yes, he wasn't usually very convincing against those opponents, except for maybe the second fight against an under prepared Williams.

Audley did deserve criticism for several things. But when it comes to that, it just seemed like people were criticising his fight selections based on his early fights. Which is when all fighters face journeymen, if we're honest.

[Kit]

True to some degree, but to go from fighting the worlds best amateurs to the worst pro’s in your early 30’s isn’t learning the game.
For me it was the cautious manner in which he disposed of them, there is defensive movement and then there is wide eyed fear, even against guys like Derek Mcafferty his body language gave the impression when it came down to it, he didn’t really want to be there.
Danny Williams 2 and the Dutch Sonny Liston fights were his best two performances and where he showed with the right mindset and lesser caution he could of achieved something more.

[funso banjo baby]

This is the problem, his first 10 fights as a novice were live headliners broadcast via the BBC.

He went for top superstar billing from day one, and the performances against clearly limited opps just weren't good enough.

The selection of opponents was too careful and way too many were bore fests in the Bugner mold

The most live opp he faced in that early run was Mark Krence but even that fight was ruined by Audley's reluctance to engage coupled with the the 6 round limit (again a very poor decision for live BBC main events)

Definitely the destruction of Danny Williams was a highlight, he followed this up by flooring Michael sprott early and seemed to be on a roll ....but then got caught.

His performance against the other mood fighter Dominic Guinn was as disappointing as Bugner v Marvis Frazier.

[ILikeBeer]

True to some degree, but to go from fighting the worlds best amateurs to the worst pro’s in your early 30’s isn’t learning the game.
For me it was the cautious manner in which he disposed of them, there is defensive movement and then there is wide eyed fear, even against guys like Derek Mcafferty his body language gave the impression when it came down to it, he didn’t really want to be there.
Danny Williams 2 and the Dutch Sonny Liston fights were his best two performances and where he showed with the right mindset and lesser caution he could of achieved something more.

Yes, I certainly agree about being overcautious in his fights. Especially with people he thought had half a chance of winning. Remember the snoozefest that was his first fight with Danny?

I'm not saying he deserves no criticism. But I think the whole; "His early opponents weren't very good" analysis isn't the most deserved of it. Being a successful amateur doesn't mean you're going to be ready to fight World Class fighters straight at pro level.

[ILikeBeer]

This is the problem, his first 10 fights as a novice were live headliners broadcast via the BBC.

He went for top superstar billing from day one, and the performances against clearly limited opps just weren't good enough.

The selection of opponents was too careful and way too many were bore fests in the Bugner mold

The most live opp he faced in that early run was Mark Krence but even that fight was ruined by Audley's reluctance to engage coupled with the the 6 round limit (again a very poor decision for live BBC main events)

Definitely the destruction of Danny Williams was a highlight, he followed this up by flooring Michael sprott early and seemed to be on a roll ....but then got caught.

His performance against the other mood fighter Dominic Guinn was as disappointing as Bugner v Marvis Frazier.

I think the problem was that those fights shouldn't have been main event. Not so much the opponents themselves.

Partly that was down to Audley's naivety in trying to promote himself, and partly down to the BBC wanting to get into boxing without really knowing how it worked. He was a name after winning gold, and they just went; "Oh, let's get him main eventing fights, get some viewers in."

Maybe if they'd had got some proper main eventers in, put Audley on the undercard, and not milked him as the best thing since sliced bread people would remember him more fondly.


Maybe not, as said he was too cautious a fighter, and was just mediocre in what already wasn't a great heavyweight division.

[Dioufy]

Will never forgive Audley convincing me he had a small chance vs Haye.

Destiny innit.

How the hell did he do that?

Not having a go. But I remember even at the time, I was amazed that anybody thought Audley had a chance. Even the casuals had been ripping the piss out of Audley for a decade before that. Suddenly because it was pay-per-view, everybody went; "Oh, actually. Maybe he will win."

Always slightly baffled me that one.

Don’t get me wrong, I did expect Haye to win pretty convincingly but he spoke with such passion, belief and kept telling us he’s never trained as hard and it was his destiny to win. It was enough for me to think he could box smart behind the jab and he sue his chance on Haye’s chin.

In the end was all shite.

[funso banjo baby]

He'd won Prizefighter with some perfect single shot ko's
Gained revenge over Sprott with that weird punch, and was giving a really good argument for his left hand against Haye.

What a shame the audley that turned up was the old one. Not a single punch thrown in the whole fight. Terrible stuff

[orbtastic]

I think the punch stats were thrown 1, landed 1. The irony is that the single punch actually cut haye.

The only thing worse than his performance that night was on the drive home having to listen to bunce justify it. For about an hour.