Audley Harrison: amateur and professional career

Audley Harrison was born in England on 26.10.1971 in London, has Jamaican roots. Winner of the Commonwealth Games in 1998 in Malaysia. In 2000 he won the gold of the Olympic Games in Australia (Sydney) in the most prestigious weight category of 91. He has the title of European champion in 2010 according to EBU. Audley Harrison is the world champion among professionals in the not very prestigious boxing version of WBF.

Amateur boxer career was rapid, and many experts from the world of boxing believed that in the professionals he will achieve the highest results and will be able to replace the legendary British boxer Lennox Lewis. But Audley Harrison, whose photo is presented in the article, did not justify the hopes placed on him.

Amateur career

Audley Harrison (by the standards of amateur boxing) began to engage in this sport late at the age of 19. Participated in international tournaments of different levels, European championships and the world, but had no serious victories before the triumph at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. For his victory he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

He lost the Turk to Sinan Samil Sam, Belarusian Sergey Lyakhovich, as well as the Russian Alexei Lezin, who was able to win early in the first battle at the 2000 Olympics. The Russian looked good in this fight and led the score, but in the fourth round Harrison Audley was able to inflict the strongest left hook and shake Alexei Lezin. After the referee counted out the Russian, he decided to stop the fight. The remaining three battles against the Ukrainian, Italian and Kazakh Harrison conducted confidently and won unconditional victories.

Audley Harrison is a boxer who won the first gold medal of the Olympics among British masters of leather gloves in the heavyweight division.

Professional career

After the success at the Olympics, Harrison decided to switch to professional boxing. He wrote an autobiographical book in 2001. He signed a contract with the BBC channel to display 10 of his fights for a serious sum (1 million pounds sterling) and made his professional debut in the same year 2001.

The beginning of his career was successful, Harrison began with a victory over the American citizen Julius Long. By the fifth battle he had won over undefeated compatriot Mark Krens. Then he successfully won, mostly by knockout.

The main error of Audley

According to Audley, his first mistake in the career of a professional boxer was the combination of performances in the ring and work in a personal promotional company. He founded it in 2001 and named A-Force Promotions.

Audley Harrisson could not concentrate completely on his performances, and this played a cruel joke with him. And also he was too frivolous about training. The Boxer believed that his luck would not leave him, even if he did not make special efforts. Until a certain time everything went well, but he won victories, while the level of rivals was not too good. He was helped by his excellent natural data.

Five years of his performances in the professional ring Audley Harrison, whose career developed successfully, was unbeatable. He changed his place of residence from his native England to the USA in 2005 and married his girlfriend Rachel. The wedding was played in the historic homeland of Jamaica. Today the spouses are happy in their marriage and raise their daughter Ariella and son Hudson.

After that, Harrison completely relaxed and with the disagreement of the judges suffered the first defeat in his professional career from compatriot Dani Williams. The next fight Audley lost to American Dominic Guin. After these failures, many experts and ordinary boxing fans wrote him off.

The fight for the world title

Audley Harrison never made the right conclusions. He did not listen to the advice of others and continued to take no serious part in the training process. Most likely, he still could not understand that his boxing career was collapsing. The boxer was able to take revenge from Denis Williams, who had previously lost. But in 2007, Harrison for the first time in his career loses a knockout against the Englishman Michael Sprott. Later, he again suffers defeat by the decision of the judges from the British Martin Rogan.

Harrison after failures still thought about his career. Audley for about a year did not perform, and after returning to the ring he started a white band, it lasted for a short period. Harrison won the Prizefighter tournament.

After that, he won by knockout over Michael Sprott, taking revenge, and became the champion of Europe. Thanks to these successes, the boxer was able to enter the championship fight (according to one of the most prestigious versions) against the current world champion in the WBA version - British David Haye.

Before the fight Harrison stated that he would knock his opponent out. But the fight was not in favor of Audley. After two and a half rounds of combat, Harrison could not deal more than one hit, reaching the goal, but missed as much as 33.

David Hay in the third round began to attack swiftly, he was much faster than Audley and inferior to him in size. Hay managed to cut down on a floor of a ring of the contender. After the referee counted, Hay again hit hard, and Audley could not answer him. The referee decided to stop the fight.

Completion of sports career

Audley Harrison is a professional boxer who has already completed his career. He won in the first rehabilitative duel. In the second fight he met with the British David Price and was sent to the knockout in the first round. Harrison was able to win for the second time in the tournament Prizefighter. After it, he again knocked out in 2013 in the first round of the American boxer Deontey Wilder, who currently holds the title of world champion, according to the most prestigious version of the WBC. After this battle Audley announced the completion of his professional career, but later decided to return to the sport.

Audley Harrison: career, total

Audley could not even get close to the achievements that his compatriot Lennox Lewis had. It seemed to many that having such physical data and Olympic gold in its assets, it is waiting for a great future in professional sports. The BBC signed a great and promising contract with the boxer, but Audley Harrison could not become a bright boxing star and even a one-day champion. He was close to the world champion title, but he could not conquer this peak. March 26, 2015 at the age of 43 years Харрисон объявил о завершении боксерской карьеры. British heavyweight prospector Audley Harrison announced the end of his boxing career.