BoxRec

By COLIN HART

WATCHING the Audley Harrison v Julius Francis fight from my hospital bed wasn’t the kind of post-op therapy any doctor would have recommended.

But what got my blood pressure soaring and pulse racing was listening to the pitiful performance of BBC TV’s team behind the microphones.

Harrison has one fight left on his BBC contract which is due to take place on June 19.

Perhaps Jim Neilly, Steve Bunce and Richie Woodhall can revert to being serious boxing commentators rather than acting as Harrison’s cheerleaders if he doesn’t fight for the Beeb again.

It’s a wonder that trio didn’t go the whole hog last Saturday and wave American-style pom-poms.

What they should have been doing was castigating an ordinary Audley for his dreadful, plodding victory.

I’ve criticised the BBC before for insulting our intelligence when it comes to Harrison.

While their radio colleague John Rawling on Five Live was telling his listeners what a load of rubbish was going on in the ring, television punters were being grossly misinformed.

We were told Harrison had learned more out-pointing Francis than he had in his previous 15 fights. What absolute drivel.

Neilly, Bunce and Woodhall also saw it as a great Harrison achievement to have gone 12 rounds with Francis because it proved he has stamina.

Julius is an honest journeyman who stepped in at short notice, but he’ll be 40 this year.

He had won just one of his nine previous contests and had lost his last six.

The former British heavyweight champion has no ambition left and therefore is hardly a formidable foe.

At a jumbo 18st 4lb he has only two speeds - slow and stop.

Harrison would have found it more strength sapping if he had gone 12 rounds with Joe Louis’ statue at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas.

With a punch-bag to play with, Harrison should have set out from the opening bell to finish off Francis as quickly as possible.

That is what heavyweights are expected to do, particularly when they are fed ageing fodder with their best years behind them.

Yet you would have thought Audley was facing a fearsome mix of Mike Tyson, Joe Frazier and George Foreman.

One doesn’t expect Harrison to behave stupidly because it’s true a single punch can end a career.

But neither should he have fought so tentatively - the way he kept backing away from Francis when he should have been steaming into him didn’t exactly endear him to the Bristol crowd.

Yet I didn’t hear any criticism from Neilly, Bunce and Woodhall as they were desperately trying to give the impression Harrison was doing fine.

The BBC have spent fortunes promoting Audley since he won his Olympic gold medal four years ago.

I can’t believe their sports bosses have issued staff instructions that they must bend over backwards to go easy on him - but that’s certainly what it sounds like.

To find out what Bunce really thought of Harrison’s display you had to turn to the newspaper he writes for.

On Monday he said it was a dreadful event and the crowd’s discontent understandable.

He went on to say Harrison’s future looks uncertain. At least that was an honest assessment.

Why do TV commentators often try to con us into believing the opposite of what our eyes can see?

It doesn’t matter how hard they try — you can’t pretend a dustcart looks and performs like a Rolls Royce. Harrison-Francis belonged to the world of waste disposal.

lirva33 wrote:I like Colin Hart now.

steve689 wrote:I must say i have been critical of Hart in the past but i agree wholeheartedly with every word here!