The Jury's Out: Harrison Stumbles Past Bonin by Ronnie McCluskey Jun 20th 2004

A great night of boxing at Ally Pally ended in controversy, as Audley 'A-Force' Harrison stopped game challenger Tomasz Bonin in nine rounds. The crowd booed, and the general consensus was that referee John Keane had stopped the bout prematurely. But Steve Bunce at ringside refused to hear it... The colourful Bunce, known in boxing circles as 'Big Daddy' made a few off-the-wall comments which surprised me. "He turns his back and runs!" Bunce exclaimed. Ok now, Steve - don't get carried away. What I saw was a clearly hurt, although game fighter, turn 180 degrees and retreat. I've seen fighters do it before. He was hurt, no question, but after that 180 turn he righted himself back to face Harrison, who landed ZERO punches between the time Bonin turned, and the stoppage, but Keane waved it off anyway. Bonin was compos mentis enough to protest the ref's call right away, so I don't think he was too badly hurt. Not warranting a stoppage anyway, in my opinion. "Eleven unanswered punches!" Bunce shouted. Sorry, but I counted only five that landed. Anyway, this isn't an attack on Steve Bunce, who incidently is one of my favourite British boxing experts, I just found these comments a little O.T.T. I'm sure I'm not the only one. But about Harrison's performance...Well, I was underwhelmed. The fight was good, but Audley was not. He allowed himself to be outworked by a man who was shorter than him, and whom he could have jabbed at range, with half the trouble. There were periods in the fight where Audley would suddenly kickstart, and jab the smaller man, setting up beautiful straight left hands. But they were few and far between. Bonin was not discouraged by Audley's forceful left hand, and kept coming forward, landing three-punch combinations and even stunning the big man a few times. Nevertheless, Bunce said "Without a doubt his best performance". Former world super-middleweight champ Richie Woodhall agreed, claiming "That was a much better performance from Audley". Let me ask you, WHAT FIGHT WERE THEY WATCHING? I saw Harrison, for the most part, outhustled by a game, but lets be honest, limited opponent. Where was the consistent right jabbing, which we've come to expect from the undefeaten Englishman? Why did he fail to bring the uppercut in, when Bonin was enjoying spells inside? We must be sympathetic I suppose - it was Audley's last fight on the Beeb, and he was noticably distressed. And in the end, he got the job done, albeit in unspectacular fashion. But really, Harrison should be busting these guys up. Really. I had the fight even at the time of the stoppage. And there was no bias involved in that at all - Bonin made the fight close with his spells inside, where he hammered Audley to the rib cage (admittedly, with little effect). Despite this, Richie Woodhall claimed Joe Mesi would be the perfect opponent for Harrison. Puh-leeze! If a short, squat guy like Bonin could rough Audley up inside, Mesi would kill him. (Unfortunately, the likelihood of Mesi ever fighting again is slim due to medical problems arising from his points win over Vassily Jirov - ed.) Hell, I saw Mark Krence give Audley problems when he stepped inside, and even rock him (if I remember correctly). Short opponents, who are good at making the fight close, and upsetting Harrisons rhythm, will give him fits. And Mesi fits the bill. He hits hard too - harder than any of Audley's opponents to date. The only problem is his chin. If Harrison lands a well timed straight left hand, the fights over...but if he doesn't...Mesi outhustles him. If Harrison fought the full fight like he did for short spells last fight - getting on his toes, and working the right jab, he would have won easily. But, unfortunately, he didn't. He punched when he choose to punch, and the rest of the time, let Bonin work him. I'm not impressed. And I wonder why BBC's analysts hailed it as "an excellent performance from Audley". If that fight had been allowed to go on, I think Harrison would have won. Purely because he was picking up some momentum, and Bonin didn't have the stamina to sustain his attack, in the latter rounds. But he deserved to continue.. It's likely he would have finished on his feet. I'll leave you with one utterly ridiculous statement, folks....Richie Woodhall, on Audley Harrison....."He was fighting with a lot of hunger tonight." Haw.

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