20.02.07 – By Michael Marley/Boxingconfidential.Com: “There are times when I just want to stick my finger up and say ‘eff you’ to all you people who have been crucifying me,” Audley Harrison murmurs with brooding intent. “Even though I’m a self-made guy who came from nothing, from a broken home and a young offenders’ institute, without a mother or any education at the start, I have done something with my life. I have been to university. I have won an Olympic gold medal. I have had a million-pound contract as a professional boxer. I have made many mistakes but I’ve also achieved some good things.”–THE GUARDIAN.
Harrison Haters, and they were legion before Olympic gold medalist heavyweight Audley Harrison got whacked out with a wicked left hook by 10-fight loser Michael Sprott in London Saturday night, are having a field day criticizing “Fraudley” and writing off his professional ring career. The fighter who called himself “the A-Force” crashed and burned big time.
To hear Harrison tell it, his critics are hell bent on “crucifying” him. On that side of the pond, it does not figure to get any better for the up-and-down Harrison any time soon. But, over here in the Original 13 Colonies, Harrison does have one backer who is not a fair weather friend. He’s got real Loyalist in his corner and that is his longtime adviser-agent, Johnny Bos.
Bos, who according to promoters Lou DiBella, Joe DeGuardia and Dino Duva, is being “blackballed” in New York because of the lawsuit he is involved with in which his former world champ Joey Gamache sued the New York commission for improper actions, remains firmly planted with Team Harrison…such as it is right now.
“I will call Audley today or he will call me,” Bos said. “I was having a good week, what with the great turnout Thursday night for Bosfest 2007, my roast/tribute at Hurley’s Saloon. But things came crashing down for Audley. I did not want to him to take the fight. Sprott is a cutie and a spoiler. He went over to Germany and beat their guy, Timo Hoffmann.
“Audley was winning this fight easy. Let’s not lose sight of that. He walked in and got hit with one shot. Don’t talk to me about Sprott being 30-10 because he’s a lot better than his record indicates.”
Bos has been part of Team Harrison since the gangling Brit turned pro. But Bos is quick to point out that he was not involved when Harrison lost to Dominic Guinn and Danny Williams.
“That’s a fight I did not want with Guinn,” Bos said. “Guinn just had a terrible style for Audley. Audley does not do well with movers.”
Sprott, who looked the “Reading Rifle” with his pulverizing left hook, is a shaker not a mover.
He’s certainly devastated Harrison and his big career plans and left the big man shaken and stirred.
Our old pal, “Lord” Jeffrey Powell, sports scrivener at The Daily Mail, is having no talk of a ring revival by Harrison. Powell wrote the following which amounts to a heavyweight hopeful’s commercial obituary:
“There can be no resurrection this time. Not for this hulk who had foretold so much glory for himself only to wind up spread eagled at the feet of his old sparring partner.
Not at 35. Not with the fragility of his jaw now as exposed for all the other giants of the prize-ring to see as clearly as his psychological unsuitability for professional boxing.
It’s over. All washed up for Britain’s one-time Olympic gold medalist. Finished for all world title intents and bank balance purposes by the Sunday punch which an Honest Joe – real name Michael Sprott – landed half an hour early, shortly before midnight on Saturday. “
Audley, call the Bosman. Time to regroup, old chap. Stiff upper lip and all that. Your own people may have tossed you in the trash bin but Bos is ever ready, ever loyal and standing by with a reconstruction plan
“Audley is a different fighter over here than in England,” Bos said. “I guess he feels he has so much to prove over there.”.
Bos is charting the path. He promises to get “the A-Force” flying high once more. But, right now, there is only the wreckage.