Yes he can!(but probably wont)
Written by: Jamie Hooper
In the build up to this fight Audley’s commitment and determined attitude in training has won him some backers namely Dereck Chisora and Martin Rogan.
Chisora says:
“I know both fighters and I’ve seen Audley Harrison fight and I’ve seen David Haye fight and I’d put my money on Audley, because he’s got the eye of the tiger. He wants it more than David. David Haye didn’t want this fight, he’s the champion, but I don’t think he wants to fight any more. I think he wanted to be champion and prove to the people, but I don’t think he wants to fight – But Audley does and I think he will put it on him.”
Rogan says:
“His [Harrison] dream of the last 10 years of wanting to become a world champion has finally come and David, as powerful as he is, is suspect. Anybody who gets hit is going to go down but Audley has this amazing left hand, as he’s proved in Prizefighter, and he can sting, and if he stings you go down and don’t get back up. As Derek says, he’s got the eye of the tiger, he’s got that light in his eyes that this is his chance. He can’t blow it this time, there’s no second chances this time; he has to do it now or he has to finish it off and pack it in.”
So at least two people believe Harrison when he says “yes i can”. But does he have a realistic chance?
Answer: Yes
If I was to give Harrison a chance of winning this fight it would depend on two things. One: Harrison training hard and two: Signs of complacency from Haye. I think I have seen enough evidence of both these points to give Harrison an outside chance.
Point One
If you happen to be 6ft 5” tall and around 18st, running uphill at altitude(7000ft) is no fun run. At nearly 39 years old, these morning runs show that he is cutting no corners in his preparation. He also has himself a decent head coach Shadeed Suluki, the guy who set the game plan for Lamon Brewster’s win over Wladimir Klitschko. His main weapon for this fight will be his left hand which looks like it has been sharpened up nicely.
Point two:
Haye seems completely convinced that this will be no challenge for him. I follow Haye on twitter and remember his tweets when training for Valuev. Almost all his tweets where about Valuev and his days training. In contrast most of Hayes recent tweets have been about random stuff with the odd snipe at Harrison. Haye just doesn’t have any fear about this fight, fear is a valuable energy source for fighters. When questioned about complacency, Haye says he is expecting Harrison to be at least 50% better than ever and is taking the fight very seriously.
So far in this article I have tried to establish a case for Harrison having a chance of winning. If Harrison does win I believe it will happen within the first two rounds by TKO. This will come from either a straight left as Haye mis-times an attack, or a left upper cut. I was never convinced that Haye could take a punch from a hard hitting Cruiser weight, I am certain that he cant take a full blooded shot off a heavy weight.
Does this mean Harrison has a good chance?
Answer: No
If you take a look at Haye’s recent media workout, it doesn’t look to good for Harrison. Haye has clearly been drilling his ‘moving in and out of range’ tactics. Faints followed by sharp head movements followed by body shots. It looked very explosive, Harrison hasn’t had to cope with this before and does tend to look helpless under pressure.
So as much as I wanted to persuade readers that Harrison has a chance, complacent or not the smart money has to be on Haye. But I will be putting a small bet on Harrison because(I’m not smart) I feel I have seen this script before. When Lewis fought Hasim Rahman I had the same feeling then that Lewis -the clear favorite- would lose, mainly due to complacency (filming oceans eleven two weeks before the fight) and Rahman beasting himself in training. The difference here is that despite one good training camp from Harrison, it cant really undo five years of inactivity and club level boxing.
least likely scenario:
Haye comes out to eager to bowl Harrison over and gets caught with a left.
Most likely scenario:
Haye sizes Audley up for three or four rounds, applies some pressure, Audley starts to look disorganized, Hayes score a KO.
On the 13th of November –with much relief- we will have the final conclusion to the Audley Harrison story. What a victory for positive thinking and self empowering mantras it will be if Harrison wins
