Audley Harrison has been to more crossroads than Dick Whittington. In 10 years, he has gone from national hero at the Sydney Olympics to an object of almost universal derision, a failed pro who still promises the world and delivers Neasden.
The journey has become tiresome for the fight public and traumatic for Harrison, whose self-belief rarely matches his ambition once he gets in the ring, a workplace as foreign to him as the Bodleian Library would be to Mike Tyson.
He is more than capable of blowing away inadequate fodder, as he has done 26 times in 30 contests. But, if there is a live opponent coming at him – as when he fought Danny Williams, Dominic Guinn, Michael Sprott and Martin Rogan – Harrison's default position is instant caution, and that is when he has been exposed.
This week, before his rematch tonight with Sprott, he was at his eloquent best, telling Paul Foley of Boxrec.com: "I have turned my life around and I know what reality is. The perception people create is not reality. What you read in the papers, it's 10% truth and 90% perception."He argued that he has thrived in adversity. He overcame what he calls his ghetto upbringing to get a university degree, win an Olympic gold medal and set up a 10-fight deal with the BBC. He points out he reversed the result against Williams, and went through the trauma of losing his brother in a car crash.
All of this is true. But it cannot disguise his shortcomings in the ring, because that is a place where what happens before always matters less than what happens while you're there.
Harrison is an articulate 38-year-old man, a convincing preacher of his own faith. You want him to be right, because, away from the heat of battle, what he says often makes sense and he is a likeable character. There is much to admire in his determination; he has, after all, been through some tough times, personally, and in trying to survive in the snakepit of the fight game.
But he is in the wrong business. He was not born to fight, a suspicion I have held since I bumped into his father, a small and nervous man, in the corridors of Wembley Arena the night in May 2001 Harrison made his professional debut against a man almost equally as small and nervous, a private detective from Miami called Mike Middleton.
Mr Harrison, a dapper man in suit and fedora, was carrying a large white cloth, which he told me he would throw into the ring the moment his boy got into trouble. I told him there was as much chance of that happening as Middleton working out who Jack the Ripper was. Harrison outweighed Middleton by two-and-a-half stone and stopped him in the first round, the first of many wins that led him to believe he could conquer the world.
Tonight, at the Alexandra Palace, Harrison has yet another chance, probably his last (but how many times have we said that?) when he fights Sprott for the vacant European heavyweight title.
He restored his confidence by winning Prizefighter recently, and that gave him the oxygen to carry on up the mountain. He will probably win tonight. But he is like the man looking to rediscover Shangri-La, who doesn't realise that you can't go back to some warm fantasyland, living forever on the buzz of youth.
What Audley has, paradoxically, is a talent to box without the instincts to fight – and that is a dangerous mix in the professional business. You can just about get away with it in the amateurs, which is where Audley should have stayed. Who knows? If they'd changed the rules and allowed boxers to go on beyond the age of 35, he might be going for a fourth gold medal in London.
The really bad deal
More potentially hazardous dreaming across the water tomorrow night, when Evander Holyfield, 47, fights Frans Botha, 41, in Las Vegas. Holyfield, such a force in his prime, shares Harrison's delusion that he can be world champion again. He can. In his mind.
Like Harrison, he calls on God to get him to the top of the mountain. There have been worse crimes committed in God's name, but this is one He surely won't sign up for. Believe it or not, it's on Primetime. I could not care less who wins.
Heavy times
Another heavyweight collision next month featuring a fighter heading for the exit at least is invested with reality. Danny Williams says that, regardless of the result against Sam Sexton, whom he fights on the undercard of Mitchell-Katsidis at Upton Park on 15 May, he will retire. I can't remember a fighter promising to quit, even if he wins, and doing it. We will see.
Danny has been the other great enigma of the British heavyweight scene, a fighter with real talent who struggled with the sort of inner doubts a lot of boxers have. The one night he really believed in himself, he knocked out what was left of Mike Tyson. He then gave as brave a performance as any sadist could want against Vitali Klitschko near his best.
Danny, who is 36, says he is going into the security business, looking after celebrities. He might even end up being Tyson's bodyguard on Mike's occasional trips to the UK. It's hard not to smile at the odd way life turns out some times.
Making Haye
No word yet on David Haye's next fight. But bet on this: it won't be against Nikolai Valuev. Hayemaker Boxing's German partners, Sauerland Event, hold the option on a rematch but know the bigger fight for the WBA world champion is against Wladimir Klitschko, self-managed and who fights for a rival TV network in Germany.
So, there are a lot of competing interests there. But the will exists in the Sauerland company to make Haye-Klitschko, and what is encouraging for the Londoner is that they are keen to do the fight at Wembley.
In any other business, what Haye's trainer and negotiator, Adam Booth, calls "the logical position" would make the fight a lay-down misere. But this is boxing, so expect weeks and maybe months of playground posturing.
It is one of the inbuilt ironies of the fight game that it is populated by hard men who act like kids. Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer pride themselves on being ace deal-makers, yet blew (for the time being) the biggest fight in the history of boxing, Pacquiao-Mayweather, largely because they let their egos get in the way.
Let's hope that's not the case with Haye and Klitschko. The signs are encouraging.
Source: guardian.co.uk
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