Excellent/revealing article IMOHarrison dumps the anger and aims for heavyweight heaven
Having salvaged a career in freefall, the Olympic gold medal winner could finally be a genuine contender
Donald McRae
Tuesday February 13, 2007
The Guardian
There are times when I just want to stick my finger up and say 'eff you' to all you people who have been crucifying me," Audley Harrison murmurs with brooding intent. "Even though I'm a self-made guy who came from nothing, from a broken home and a young offenders' institute, without a mother or any education at the start, I have done something with my life. I have been to university. I have won an Olympic gold medal. I have had a million-pound contract as a professional boxer. I have made many mistakes but I've also achieved some good things."
Harrison has long been an easy man to mock, an arrogant chancer trapped in the most ludicrous self-delusion which encouraged him to believe he was an ordained fighter and a grand celebrity. In reality he went from Olympic hero to professional bum in five years. A money-spinning contract with the BBC, which Harrison had negotiated himself after becoming Britain's first Olympic super-heavyweight champion in 2000, ended amid jeering accusations that he was the biggest fake in boxing.
Worse was to follow. The first loss of his career, against Danny Williams in December 2005, was one of the most embarrassing contests ever staged in Britain, a 12-round travesty in which Harrison looked as petrified as he was confused. He fled to America and, four months later, lost abysmally again, against another ridiculed fighter in Dominick Guinn. Then he was given one last chance, the opportunity to fight Matt Skelton last December. Fate, of course, intervened. Skelton was injured and Williams, training for a different bout, drafted in as a late replacement.
Harrison, this time, said little. Even as Williams hit a new low in crassness by bragging "when he feels my power and starts to drink his own blood he will go back to his old poofter tactics," Harrison acted differently. He simply went out and produced the most complete performance of his career, moving with fluid aggression behind a spiteful jab and sharp combinations. The third-round knockout was as impressive as it was merciful for Williams.
"Afterwards," Harrison says as he prepares for his EU heavyweight title fight on Saturday night at Wembley Arena, against another Briton, Michael Sprott, "I had one of those 'eff you' moments when I wanted to shout into the camera but then I thought, 'no, that's what they want me to do. They want me to have that chip on my shoulder.' So I let the anger go. I knew my fighting had done the talking."
In person, allowing himself to be properly interviewed and presenting a raw and honest depiction of his fears and flaws, Harrison is an impressive and even moving figure. "Four years ago, when I first left London for Las Vegas, I was burnt out and disillusioned - both with boxing and Britain. I had actually forgotten how to connect with people and I had to learn how to do that again. Things had gotten so bad because anger is like a virus - and that virus almost got me. At one point I was so angry I wanted to come back to this country like some Rambo figure and do damage. I wanted to scream at everybody. And if I hadn't let that go I would have destroyed myself.
"I read Nelson Mandela's book and one of his lines stayed in my head. He said he was in prison for 27 years but, in his mind, he was free. I told myself, 'look what Mandela went through. That was real suffering. You ain't been through nothing comparable to that so you can also free yourself from anger and frustration.' I went to Jamaica for three weeks, up in the mountains, and I cleansed myself physically, mentally and spiritually.
"I reconnected with my mum. I needed to get over all the anger that she hadn't been around when I was growing up, that we had been brought up by my dad. I saw it as a negative that he would discipline us in a tough way and tell me, 'I ain't ever coming to see you if you go to prison.' And when I went to jail he did stay away. But he had his principles and I finally realised he had been right."
Harrison also needed to reconcile himself to his failure as a boxer in this country. "After it ended so disappointingly with the BBC I realised I was expendable, just like everybody. My mistakes made me see I was no better than most individuals, and that no one can ever beat the system. The system will always bring you down."
A flash of Harrison's old defiance rises up. "But you know what? I'm so happy I tried to break the mould which says a boxer should know his place. I turned pro with the right idea, a noble idea of making it under my own promotion, with me calling the shots. That aspirational side of me would be celebrated in America. In the UK it is viewed totally as a negative."
Harrison still struggles to explain to his American wife, Raychel, how he became such a derided figure. "She can't believe it but I tell her that England is unique. England wants to hold on to its sports stars and make them ordinary and accessible all the time. If you don't want that, or you leave the country, they'll be down on you. And if you're a bit . . . well, I call it self-assured but in England they call it arrogant, then they'll hate you."
And then, realising he might sound a little too bitter, Harrison pulls back. "I guess the learning curve applied not only to me as a fighter, but to how I presented myself. When people looked at me they thought this guy is only in it for the money. They thought that everything was staged with me. So they're right when they say that for the first time, in beating Danny Williams, they saw me not as a businessman but a pure fighter. Before that fight my focus was almost fanatical because I focused on the magnitude of coming back to England and producing a great performance. It was the most intense training camp I'd ever had. We locked ourselves away in Big Bear [in California] and I became serene. The year before I couldn't sleep but this time I had no anger or tension. My mind was clear and everything flowed naturally. And so I fell asleep at 5 o'clock on the afternoon of the fight and only woke just before my brother knocked on the door at eight. He said, 'What's the matter with you?' I told him: 'Terry, it means I'm ready.' I proved that against Williams."
On Saturday he faces another man who has beaten Williams. Yet Sprott, who out-pointed Williams in 2004, subsequently lost his British title to Skelton. Harrison's camp in Las Vegas, accordingly, "has been less intense. We prepared for physical warfare last time and now it's about technique. But this fight could be dangerous. Sprott will bring some fear into the ring. When you have that fear your senses are more alert and you raise your game. He's also got quick hands and, like me, he's been preparing seven weeks. I need to be careful because I'm only one fight away from retirement."
In the likely event that he beats Sprott, Harrison will then face Skelton with the winner promised a WBO title fight against the flashy but crude New Yorker Shannon Briggs. allegedly, who had been his most acerbic critic, is now promoting Harrison. "I now know nothing is personal in boxing," Harrison says. "It's just a business and you can work with anyone if it means you'll make money together."
Money now circulates mostly around heavyweights from the old eastern bloc. Apart from Nikolay Valuev, the 7ft 2in Russian "Beast From The East" who holds the WBA belt, Ukraine's Klitschko brothers are back: Wladimir is the IBF champion while Vitali has just announced his return from retirement to challenge Oleg Maskaev for the WBC title in Moscow.
Harrison might still talk about unifying the various titles but, at 35, time is against him. The credibility of heavyweight boxing is also in tatters, making the recent reign of Lennox Lewis seem akin to a golden age. "Lennox is a class act. Some people can't control their impulses but Lennox can. He's just one of those people who made the right choices in life. He has no need for fame."
Harrison, however, is different. For all the changes he has made he still seems to yearn for an audience. The big man hesitates at the suggestion and then, admirably, he remains true to his real self. "I think I'll always want that audience. I'm not craving the fame game no more but, yeah, I still want to be noticed. And, this time, I'd like to be appreciated."
Harrison dumps the anger and aims for heavyweight heaven
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Chesney_Chambers
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Harrison dumps the anger and aims for heavyweight heaven
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jamesmcdonnell
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Well, let's not get too excited, Harrison has always been a great talker, that's why he's managed to get another crack at the whip.
I'm not going to get carried away by his beating Williams, who seems to be all but finished as a fighter. Sprott, although not exactly a world beater, is in better shape, has been more active, and has been competing at a higher level that Audley or Williams lately. He will have a lot more to prove than Williams did.
I'm not going to get carried away by his beating Williams, who seems to be all but finished as a fighter. Sprott, although not exactly a world beater, is in better shape, has been more active, and has been competing at a higher level that Audley or Williams lately. He will have a lot more to prove than Williams did.