Well at least it’s over. The growing threat that a fight between David Haye and Audley Harrison was going to be made had stalked British boxing for almost a year, but not even the fight’s fiercest critics could have predicted what a farce the night would turn out to be.
The fight was unsurprisingly awful, Harrison starting deep in his shell just as he did in previous defeats to Danny Williams, Dominick Gunn and Martin Rogan. Harrison boxed throughout the fight deep in survival mode and perhaps for the last time British fight fans were treated to the always frustrating sight of a 253Ibs, 6ft 5inch man fighting like the poorest man’s fifth choice Floyd Mayweather. Hiding behind a high tight guard, Harrison only threw one punch in the entire fight and anytime Haye threatened Harrison would quickly back pedal. It looked like Harrison’s ultra-negative tactics were causing Haye’s problems, including an embarrassing first round where neither fighter landed a single punch. However the reality was that Haye was simply content to see out the first two rounds. Not because he was feeling out his physically imposing opponent but because (as he told Sky after the fight) he and his entourage had money on him finishing the fight in the third round.
No, of course I’m not joking.
Whether such an insider tip technically breaks the rules of the game, it’s certainly breaks the spirit of anti-match fixing rules. Indeed Haye could quite possibly have broken the law. What it certainly was is a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands of fans that paid their money to watch a world title fight! In no other sport would a champion even think, let alone openly brag about showing such blatant disrespect to the championship he holds.
This wasn’t the only misstep on a night that will surely inflict long-term damage on boxing in Britain. Whilst no one could deny that Haye vs. Harrison wasn’t a match that attracted significant interest amongst the casual audience and the mainstream media, nobody was under any illusions that it was going to be a competitive fight let alone a good one. As I said in the liveblog, it was nothing but a freakshow. With all that known in advance the decision of Sky and/or Hayemaker to have only one live fight on the undercard of a three hour pay per view was completely self-defeating. With an overall audience likely to be in excess of a million people not only would a high quality undercard ensure that fans went away as satisfied customers but it would’ve helped exposed the stars of the future to casual fans. Instead Sky decided to show George Groves’ enjoyable Commonwealth Super-Middleweight Title defense against Kenny Anderson first up and then spent the next 75minutes hyping the main event.
Harrison’s stagefright, Haye’s arrogance and Sky’s idiocy all combined to make a bad situation worse. Weeks of excellent hype were blown away in a night full of missed opportunities and false promises. As their lies came crashing down, Sky completely lost the plot with their commentators openly mocking the fans that had brought into the channel’s own hype that Harrison was a genuine contender for a world title. Cue angry casual fans ringing up radio phone-ins and posting on mainstream sport message boards about how they had been ripped off and would never be buying another boxing pay per view. Which is terrible when you consider that Frank Warren put on a fantastic pay per view back in September and along with Amir Khan is going to put on an even better one on December 11th.
After the fight Haye came out with the same old tired lines about retiring within the next twelve months and how it’s time for the Klitschkos to step-up and fight him. In an astonishingly piece of hypocrisy he renewed his attack on the quality of the Klitschko’s opposition! He also noticeably refused to be drawn when Sky’s new Head of Boxing Adam Smith asked whether Haye would be willing to accept a lesser cut to face the Klitschkos. One has to wonder whether he will have any choice, given how everything played out its difficult to see how Sky will be able to persuade people to pay to watch Haye defend against even worthy opponents such as Ruslan Chagaev or Tomasz Adamek. In any case the high hopes that some had of him being the ‘savior of the heavyweight division’ are clearly going to be dashed. He’s never going to break into America; hell he’s made it quite clear he’s not even going to try!
Anyone who would consider giving Audley Harrison a world title shot obviously doesn’t have the sporting integrity of boxing as a priority, and on one level I don’t blame Hayemaker or Sky for grabbing the low hanging fruit and making such an easy, big-money match. That said, they let themselves and boxing down on Saturday night. Neither went the extra mile to ensure that the event would be worth watching even in spite of the main event’s limitation. Sky failed to protect its long term interests by using the event as a showcase for young fighters that will be headlining television specials and pay per views when Haye is long retired. And Haye just confirmed with his usual classless display of arrogance that he’s nothing but a small-time operator squeezing as much money out of a small, dedicated British fanbase.
