Defending Audley

After what came to pass on Saturday there are many people who would look at the above title and struggle to contemplate even the thought of trying to defend Audley Harrison.

As the saying goes – sometimes you can’t ‘defend the undefendable’.

But, I am going to give it a try. I see this as a far better way of ‘cleansing’ my mind of what I saw on Saturday, anything other than me doing that results in some of the bile I have seen, heard and written since which honestly serves no purpose.

In trying to defend Harrison it needs to be said straight off that his showing in the fight was very poor, some may even say very poor is being too kind. For a world title challenge and the chance at the biggest prize in the sport the ‘effort’ put in by Audley was very poor. I think it’s very important to acknowledge that.

However, what I also think is very important to acknowledge is that some of the stuff written since has in my opinion also been very poor.

Look, when the fight was announced we all knew that Harrison was a very lucky boy to have been given the opportunity, a last gasp knockout of one Michael Sprott (no disrespect) does not a world title challenger make. Indeed, it was not hard to foresee that this fight was essentially a mis-match.

So, why the relentless bile since from all comers? Didn’t the fight simply pan out how we all knew it would? It's not Harrison’s fault that millions paid £50+ to go the arena and watch the fight and millions more paid £15 for a very poor Sky PPV show.

It's not Harrison’s fault that some bought into the ‘at some point he will walk onto my left hand’ theory – I know many respected sports journalists thought the same, more fool them, not more fool Audley.

What became obvious, certainly in my mind anyway, is that from about the weigh in onwards Harrison all of a sudden was hit with a dose of reality which he did not like, a dose of reality he had managed to shut out throughout the much hyped build up to the fight.

How that must feel for a man who has waited all his life for a chance like this only to realise he is about to be embarrassed on such a grand scale, only Harrison knows. I for one have feelings of sympathy, not resentment, when I think about this.

It takes guts to enter a boxing ring; I think we can all agree on that. To my mind it takes guts to continually put yourself out there to be shot at when deep down you know you do not have the necessary goods to achieve what you want to achieve.

Audley, for a man possessed with all the necessary god given physical tools to prosper, just does not and never has, the innate ability to translate this into results. It’s not a crime; he is not the only one.

Sport in general and boxing in particular is littered with talented people who for whatever reason cannot simply produce when needed. That’s life.

A phrase used to describe cricketers by former England coach Duncan Fletcher springs to mind here. When talking about individuals, Fletcher would always in private refer to what he called ‘dogfuck’ when describing someone’s heart, desire or whatever you want to call it.

Audley clearly is lacking in the ‘dogfuck’ department – this is not a disease just a fact and something that probably eats away at him at all times, even more so now.

Yes, yes he made a lot of positive noises in the build up, the upshot now being that he should somehow be derided for doing the opposite in the fight. An understandable reaction, but answer me this - show me a fighter on earth who has not said one thing yet done the opposite come fight time. Even David Haye himself said he would ‘blast out’ Valuev, then spent the fight on the back foot. Not exactly the same I know but still...

Just a word about the Sky coverage, Bazza M should have more of a heart. His post fight ‘summing up’ I thought was a little vicious and at times smacked of a man who was desperate to say ‘I told you so’ a million times.

For a more rounded summing up I would refer to the excellent Johnny Nelson, who got it spot on when talking about Audley suddenly having the ‘realisation’ that he was just simply not good enough.

I watched the fight on Saturday night and felt sad, I felt sad at watching the mental collapse of a man who all his sporting life has worked hard to achieve his goals and finally realised that he was about to be hit, hurt and ultimately shown up, yet could do nothing about it.

My sadness is obviously nothing compared to what Harrison must be feeling right now. He got the stage he wanted, the stage he has worked all his life for. When it came down to it he was just not anywhere near good enough, he realised that probably sometime on Saturday and deep down that must have eaten away at him.

So, rather than kicking a man when he is down, I wish Audley Harrison all the best. He is not a bad man, just a man who sadly was not good enough to realise his hopes and dreams. I for one sympathise with that and I reckon you should all do so as well.