Why oh why has no-one mentioned this?. Maskaev is the fringe contender, he hits hard, has a good record, stopped Vitali in the amateurs but looks chinny as anything these days.
Audley is an up and comer but is getting on..why doesnt he fight Maskaev in the States, maybe get the win and really launch himself..no-one could ever slaughter Maskaev as an opponent..
Time to shut up the doubters Audley
Harrison v Maskaev..a perfect fight
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thepocketrocket
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 3283
- Joined: 16 Jan 2003, 06:26
Re: Harrison v Maskaev..a perfect fight
You know, the one good thing about Audley fighting Francis is that we can judge Audley against a known quantity for possibly the first time in a long time. People were impressed by Harrison's win over Hersisia, but, it has to be said, Hersisia was not the greatest fighter in the world and we really don't know how much that win is worth.thepocketrocket wrote:Why oh why has no-one mentioned this?. Maskaev is the fringe contender, he hits hard, has a good record, stopped Vitali in the amateurs but looks chinny as anything these days.
Audley is an up and comer but is getting on..why doesnt he fight Maskaev in the States, maybe get the win and really launch himself..no-one could ever slaughter Maskaev as an opponent..
Time to shut up the doubters Audley
Hersisia looked like he could punch at 21-0 (16) going into the fight, but had failed to stop the limited and bulked-up Finn Sami Elovaara in his one WBF title defence (since when has Finland produced a good heavyweight) - and was also unable to halt French veteran Antoine Palatis in an eight-rounder in Denmark in 2002.
Palatis, a southpaw like Harrison, was later stopped in four by Matt Skelton.
Dutch Windmill described the champion as a "hard worker" more than a true kayo artist prior to the fight, and a man who had been exceptionally well matched. Worse, his chin looked suspect when he climbed off the floor to outlast Argentina's Sandro Vazquez in nine rounds in winning the WBF crown (Vazquez entered the fight with 22 losses on his record!). In a previous fight with Poland's Wojciech Bartnik (televised on Eurosport), he was floored by a jab and looked lucky to edge home on points.
But a fight with Francis allows us to measure Audley's alleged improvement more clearer. Francis went 10 rounds with Matt Skelton in February and has only been blown out by world class opponents (including Maskaev). We know he can look after himself. If Audley bombs him out, Audley HAS improved. If he doesn't, he's still a long way from proper titles.
Re: Harrison v Maskaev..a perfect fight
No-one has mentioned it purely because he is far too risky an opponent at this stage of Audley's career. He's most definitely a live one and retains ambitions of his own.thepocketrocket wrote:Why oh why has no-one mentioned this?.
Maskaev might be chinny now (though even that's debatable), but Audley's no big puncher, and Maskaev packs a hell of a punch and there are still question marks over Audley's chin in the wake of the Krence fight.
I've been a critic of Harrison's progress to date but even I think this would constitute a far too risky attempt to gatecrash the rankings. With the heavyweight division wide open at the moment there's absolutely no need for such a gamble.