Dream on Audley

“No disrespect to David Haye, but no-one is talking about David Haye,”. These are the words of the 2000 super-heavyweight Olympic champion, Audley Harrison.

The 38-year-old says he wants to fight either one of the Klitschko brothers if he can dethrone European heavyweight champion Albert Sosnowski. To me this comes across as a little bit ambitious to say the least. Harrison has lost four of his last eight fights looking no more than a journeyman despite his recent Prizefighter success.

The Brentwood-based Pole Sosnowski is one tough cookie and he can boast stopping Danny Williams in 2008. Harrison and Williams’ careers have both taken similar paths. Williams is on the verge of retiring and knows he is not up to it anymore while Harrison also knows this is the case but he is fooling himself into one more attempt as he has done several times before.

Looking back to Harrison’s comments on Haye, you would think the former Olympic champion is mad. I certainly do. David Haye is the most talked about heavyweight in the world at the moment and has been billed as the man to rescue boxing’s blue ribbon division.

The WBA heavyweight champion has the Klitschko brothers running scared because they know Haye is a talent they have never had to deal with before. Vitali and especially Wladimir don’t look their best by any stretch of the imagination while Haye is in prime physical condition and ready to rule the heavyweight world.

I believe Harrison knows this and he realises he doesn’t have a realistic chance of beating Haye. I would still fancy Vitali and Wladimir to beat Harrison but the Gold medallist would have a far greater chance of coming away with something.

The other reason why Audley might have said what he did about Haye is because of popularity. The Bermondsey born fighter captured the nation by his stunning win over Nikolai Valuev in November. In the build up to the fight the nation was taking about it and after the fight this carried on. Up and down the nation millions of Brits watched the fight. A lot of people love Haye but many dislike him for his cocky remarks and demeanour but the point is that everyone is talking about him.

Harrison has never really had many fans because of his lethargic style and let’s face it his lack of talent but he wants what Haye has, Popularity. This is evident by his recent remarks;” I want to get my London fans in their St George’s T-shirts and I want to get nostalgic and hear chants of Audley’, ‘Audley’, ‘Audley’.

I think that’s why he wants to keep going as a boxer. Yes he wants to be World champion but I think he also wants to be loved and respected. As a human being we crave such attributes because if you’re loved then you feel special. Harrison comes across as a complex and often arrogant character but deep down he wants to be liked.

As much as I find Harrison’s remarks about Haye ridiculous I do believe there is a deeper meaning to all of this. Harrison will never be good enough to beat Haye but he also realises if he can beat Sosnowski then the Klitschko brothers are there to be shot at and realise his dream of becoming world champion. Maybe then he would have the respect and recognition he believes he deserves.

Unfortunately Harrison is nothing more than a journeyman and like Williams I think he will be stopped by Sosnowski, ending a career that promised so much but delivered so little.

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