Moment of truth for Scott Harrison
Posted: 26 Nov 2003, 21:10
FORMER WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison hopes to regain the title in a quick rematch with Mexico's Manuel Medina at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow this Saturday (November 29). Harrison vowed to win back the belt he lost to Medina at the same venue in July, but assumed he would have to wait after the WBO mandated Marco Antonio Barrera first crack at Medina, a man, ironically, the Glasweigan had been targetting. Barrera subsequently pursued a more lucrative - if losing - showdown with Filipino star Manny Pacquiao, thus allowing Harrison his speedy return.
"I’m still gutted about the loss, but I'll come back stronger than ever," said Scott of his only genuine setback in 22 contests (his only other loss came on cuts). "All great fighters lose, and it's all about how you come back from defeat in this sport."
But there's no doubt the defeat, on home turf, was a hard one to swallow.
He was at the centre of a police probe a few weeks afterwards when a man was hospitalised with a fractured jaw and broken nose following an incident at a pub in East Kilbride in Glasgow. Scott was questioned about the incident and faces possible court action, though nothing is in concrete as I write. It can hardly have eased his post-fight blues. "I feel devastated," he later admitted. "Being world champion is all I dreamed about, so to lose it is devastating. Medina (who had called him a "boy" before the fight) not only took my pride, he also took my status as champion and the money I would have earned. Now I want to get it all back.
"Revenge is motivating me to win this fight. I just need to get back into training again and rip the title back off him."
The decision in favour of the Tijuana man was a split one - but the veteran challenger deserved to win. His movement, workrate and experience befuddled a surprisingly lacklustre champion for much of the fight, and it's no secret Scott walks around between fights at way over the nine stone limit. The stocky Harrison is huge for the division in fact, and while his strength worked to great effect in a comprehensive points win over Julio Pablo Chacon to win the title last October and in pounding out a one-sided decision over Wayne McCullough in his first defence in March, Medina nullified it with superb lateral movement and quick attacks to head and body. For a supposed non-puncher, he doubled over the Scot with long rights to the body on several occasions, bloodied his nose and marked him up around the eyes.
Was Harrison simply dead at the weight?
The rematch says otherwise, given the fighter's camp - which includes manager Frank Maloney and trainer Peter Harrison, Scott's father, would surely have moved him up if he was no longer capable of making nine stone safely. And the fighter himself is very much his own man. According to training camp sources, Harrison, who normally makes the featherweight limit three or four days before a fight, was touching that level several weeks ago.
No, he remains at nine stone, and by targetting a 'world' title at the weight again, remains there for the forseeable future it seems. End of weightmaking debate.
So why did he labour against Medina?
The fighter blames his sluggishness on a virus he claims he contracted in his usual training base of Tenerife - and has abandoned the island for the more local - and more isolated - setting of Fort William in north-west Scotland this time around. "I don't think I was right from the start of the fight," he said. "I though it would pick up after a few rounds but after those few rounds I thought it would pick up in another few rounds but it just didn't happen.
"I couldn't pick it up and it just wasn't there," he continued. "I was catching him with my jab but I couldn't follow it up, there was nothing in my body."
There is another possibility. Harrison, the former British and Commonwealth champion, was taking part in his 10th consecutive title fight against Medina. Was he simply suffering from staleness as opposed to the effects of a virus or of constant weightmaking (10 featherweight title fights in a row has mean't an awful lot of boiling down mind you)? Even 26-year-olds grow stale.
One thing is true. As Frank Maloney put it: "On the night there was something missing."
But let's not forget the part Manuel Medina played in his poor showing. If Scott didn't look his usual self, the Mexican's tactics played a major part in that and have to be acknowledged. Unlike Chacon and McCullough, Medina refused to walk into the compact, powerful hometowner, who, for all his strength, does like fight in punishing bursts and pick his punches. Medina, by moving and countering and varying his attacks, wouldn't let him.
"I thought I could have got the result and that it was close," said a more spontaneous Scott immediately after the fight, "but it all depends on how the judges score the fight. He got the title so he won it fair and square."
Fair and square indeed. The astonishing Medina, a pro at 14, had taken part in 18 'world' title fights leading up to the Harrison showdown against the likes of Johnny Tapia, Luisito Espinosa, Alejandro Gonzalez, Paul Ingle, Juan Molina and a peak Naseem Hamed (whom he took to the well). But after a one-sided pounding at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez just prior to facing Harrison, Manuel looked like a man who had been to the well too many times himself. He hadn't. It was a rare error of judgement by Frank Maloney, who claimed the rangy Mexican would get "the fright of his life" once he felt the strength of his man. (Interestingly, Harrison's big domestic rival Michael Brodie had turned down Medina as an opponent in June, choosing Argentina's Juan Cabrera instead and beating him comprehensively on points).
Still, Maloney believes Harrison will come back a better fighter. "He lost the battle, but he will come back to win the war," said Maloney. "Top fighters like Lennox Lewis have come back from big setbacks when some have thought it was impossible. Scott is a top fighter and will definitely come back. It's just one of those things.
"The good thing is it wasn't a beating. Nobody is making excuses because on the night we got beat by the better man. We will live with that as long as we learn from it.
"It's better to lose earlier in your career than later because it's always harder to come back from a later loss," he added.
"He has learned his lesson and this time he will be 100 per cent ready for Medina."
There's always the chance of course the long-armed, pot-shotting Medina has the style to beat Scott every night of the week. Harrison probably knows this, and is so serious about the return he has been at his spartan training camp since September, aided by conditioner Owen Lennon. He has reputedly been running up part of Ben Nevis three times a week. "It is totally isolated and away from everything. I do not want to let anything get in the way of my preparations and have separated myself from my family to fully focus on the fight ahead. I am not expecting an easy night but I know what I am up against and will do the job this time. Revenge will be sweet."
"I am ready to go for it," he continued. "He stole our first fight with his tactics and his elbows," said Harrison. "He did put up a good fight, but now I know how he fights.
"I feel as if I let myself and my country down by losing that fight," he said. "I am not going to let my country down again."
I'm inclined to agree with him. I feel the first fight was a temporary blip, and this time the Scot will look back to his punishing best as he grinds out a one-sided points win over the Mexican veteran.
"I’m still gutted about the loss, but I'll come back stronger than ever," said Scott of his only genuine setback in 22 contests (his only other loss came on cuts). "All great fighters lose, and it's all about how you come back from defeat in this sport."
But there's no doubt the defeat, on home turf, was a hard one to swallow.
He was at the centre of a police probe a few weeks afterwards when a man was hospitalised with a fractured jaw and broken nose following an incident at a pub in East Kilbride in Glasgow. Scott was questioned about the incident and faces possible court action, though nothing is in concrete as I write. It can hardly have eased his post-fight blues. "I feel devastated," he later admitted. "Being world champion is all I dreamed about, so to lose it is devastating. Medina (who had called him a "boy" before the fight) not only took my pride, he also took my status as champion and the money I would have earned. Now I want to get it all back.
"Revenge is motivating me to win this fight. I just need to get back into training again and rip the title back off him."
The decision in favour of the Tijuana man was a split one - but the veteran challenger deserved to win. His movement, workrate and experience befuddled a surprisingly lacklustre champion for much of the fight, and it's no secret Scott walks around between fights at way over the nine stone limit. The stocky Harrison is huge for the division in fact, and while his strength worked to great effect in a comprehensive points win over Julio Pablo Chacon to win the title last October and in pounding out a one-sided decision over Wayne McCullough in his first defence in March, Medina nullified it with superb lateral movement and quick attacks to head and body. For a supposed non-puncher, he doubled over the Scot with long rights to the body on several occasions, bloodied his nose and marked him up around the eyes.
Was Harrison simply dead at the weight?
The rematch says otherwise, given the fighter's camp - which includes manager Frank Maloney and trainer Peter Harrison, Scott's father, would surely have moved him up if he was no longer capable of making nine stone safely. And the fighter himself is very much his own man. According to training camp sources, Harrison, who normally makes the featherweight limit three or four days before a fight, was touching that level several weeks ago.
No, he remains at nine stone, and by targetting a 'world' title at the weight again, remains there for the forseeable future it seems. End of weightmaking debate.
So why did he labour against Medina?
The fighter blames his sluggishness on a virus he claims he contracted in his usual training base of Tenerife - and has abandoned the island for the more local - and more isolated - setting of Fort William in north-west Scotland this time around. "I don't think I was right from the start of the fight," he said. "I though it would pick up after a few rounds but after those few rounds I thought it would pick up in another few rounds but it just didn't happen.
"I couldn't pick it up and it just wasn't there," he continued. "I was catching him with my jab but I couldn't follow it up, there was nothing in my body."
There is another possibility. Harrison, the former British and Commonwealth champion, was taking part in his 10th consecutive title fight against Medina. Was he simply suffering from staleness as opposed to the effects of a virus or of constant weightmaking (10 featherweight title fights in a row has mean't an awful lot of boiling down mind you)? Even 26-year-olds grow stale.
One thing is true. As Frank Maloney put it: "On the night there was something missing."
But let's not forget the part Manuel Medina played in his poor showing. If Scott didn't look his usual self, the Mexican's tactics played a major part in that and have to be acknowledged. Unlike Chacon and McCullough, Medina refused to walk into the compact, powerful hometowner, who, for all his strength, does like fight in punishing bursts and pick his punches. Medina, by moving and countering and varying his attacks, wouldn't let him.
"I thought I could have got the result and that it was close," said a more spontaneous Scott immediately after the fight, "but it all depends on how the judges score the fight. He got the title so he won it fair and square."
Fair and square indeed. The astonishing Medina, a pro at 14, had taken part in 18 'world' title fights leading up to the Harrison showdown against the likes of Johnny Tapia, Luisito Espinosa, Alejandro Gonzalez, Paul Ingle, Juan Molina and a peak Naseem Hamed (whom he took to the well). But after a one-sided pounding at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez just prior to facing Harrison, Manuel looked like a man who had been to the well too many times himself. He hadn't. It was a rare error of judgement by Frank Maloney, who claimed the rangy Mexican would get "the fright of his life" once he felt the strength of his man. (Interestingly, Harrison's big domestic rival Michael Brodie had turned down Medina as an opponent in June, choosing Argentina's Juan Cabrera instead and beating him comprehensively on points).
Still, Maloney believes Harrison will come back a better fighter. "He lost the battle, but he will come back to win the war," said Maloney. "Top fighters like Lennox Lewis have come back from big setbacks when some have thought it was impossible. Scott is a top fighter and will definitely come back. It's just one of those things.
"The good thing is it wasn't a beating. Nobody is making excuses because on the night we got beat by the better man. We will live with that as long as we learn from it.
"It's better to lose earlier in your career than later because it's always harder to come back from a later loss," he added.
"He has learned his lesson and this time he will be 100 per cent ready for Medina."
There's always the chance of course the long-armed, pot-shotting Medina has the style to beat Scott every night of the week. Harrison probably knows this, and is so serious about the return he has been at his spartan training camp since September, aided by conditioner Owen Lennon. He has reputedly been running up part of Ben Nevis three times a week. "It is totally isolated and away from everything. I do not want to let anything get in the way of my preparations and have separated myself from my family to fully focus on the fight ahead. I am not expecting an easy night but I know what I am up against and will do the job this time. Revenge will be sweet."
"I am ready to go for it," he continued. "He stole our first fight with his tactics and his elbows," said Harrison. "He did put up a good fight, but now I know how he fights.
"I feel as if I let myself and my country down by losing that fight," he said. "I am not going to let my country down again."
I'm inclined to agree with him. I feel the first fight was a temporary blip, and this time the Scot will look back to his punishing best as he grinds out a one-sided points win over the Mexican veteran.
