Danny Harding - The opponent who won by Terry Dooley Jun 14th 2007

When former amateur star – and ABA winner - Chris Pacey powered to his second win last July - on the under-card of David Haye - Ismael Aboul - many people predicted that Pacey was on the road to big things. In destroying Peter Allen in two one-sided rounds Pacey had shown excellent punch selection and power. However there was one person in attendance who did not share this optimism, there was one person who felt that Pacey had too many flaws for the pro game, this person was Danny Harding who, less than a year on, now holds two hard-fought wins over Pacey. Danny himself had also fought that night; he also recorded his second pro win. That is where the similarities ended. Chris was one to watch; Danny was picked to fill a slot. Chris belted out Allen and left people feeling confident that he was on the road distinguishingly travelled; Danny, for his part, was cut by his left temple and had to work hard for his money versus Neil McQuade. Looking back it was a fascinating insight into the roads taken by boxers at the start of their careers. Danny had been quietly compiling a nice statistical record and the biggest statistic - a lack of KO's through his first two fights – had put him in the 'honest pro who is not going to be a Champion, give him to a prospect' bracket. The first fight between the two took place on the under card of Moore-Macklin. Danny boxed well with his right hand and left hook to earn a disputed, by the Maloney camp, win. A guy who is 2-0 (0) beating a guy who was 2-0 (1) is hardly earth shattering news yet for Danny it represented a victory for the guy who had been thrown into the corner marked 'opponent'. After seeing Danny bleed and brawl with McQuade Team Pacey saw something in Danny they could exploit yet at the same time Danny had seen enough in Chris' win that night to feel, given the chance, that the unfashionable novice pro could turn the tables on the Maloney prospect. Danny Harding: ‘Joe Pennington asked me about fighting Pacey. I'd seen him fight Peter Allen and Chris has not got a fast work rate so I thought I could beat him.' The first fight was a four-rounder and four-round fights are dangerous if you do not have pace. Many times a well-paced fighter with the right punches can step into these fights and overcome the, seemingly, more skilled opponent. Given the recent refereeing penchant for giving one even round per fight all you would need to do in a four-rounder is win two rounds. Danny took the first fight 38-39 (blow me an even round slipped in there). Effectively winning the fight on the basis of two rounds. A small collective of Maloney's people loudly declared that the result had gone the wrong way. Danny differed then and now. DH: 'I won. I knew he'd won the ABA's and everyone kept going on about him being some big prospect coming up but is a different game in the pros. It is harder.' ‘It was dead close really, only a point in it but Maloney and all the Cockneys came up saying I was lucky so I knew we'd have a rematch but I didn't expect it to be that quick.' Danny adopted a boxing approach to the first fight, his main weapon was a riff off the one-two (a right hand followed by a left hook being his weapon of choice for the fight) and he used it well. Throughout you were given the impression that Danny, despite feeling he could beat Pacey, was wary of the southpaws' power. DH: ‘'I was moving to the right - with him being a southpaw - and I was moving right and back and boxing him…thinking his power was a bit more than what it was.' Despite seemingly out-boxing Pacey comfortably that one-round scorecard showed how hard it is to overcome the stigma of being in the 'opponent' corner. Danny had won but only just on the cards. Many under-card fights, Tony Randell-Danny Wright for instance, go the wrong way. DH: ‘I knew I'd won it. I thought I'd beaten him. The ref was a good ref and got it right. I was down as the opponent but I won.' A rematch was soon forthcoming as Maloney sought to get his prospects sole blemish removed with a quick turnaround of the first result. Harding-Pacey II was made for the under-card of Jamie Moore-Juan Sebastian Lujan (eight months after the first bout). DH: ‘I knew he'd be fired-up for it (the rematch) because he had a long time – about eight weeks - to train for the second fight and me and (trainer) Nigel (Hardman) only had five weeks to train for it. I thought the training was hard the first time round but it was nothing (compared to) my training for the second one. I was really fit and we got the technique spot-on. I felt really confident and sharp.' This was partially confirmed in the pre-fight introductions. Pacey was making a point of staring a nonplussed Harding out. From that moment Pacey's intentions seemed clear, once again he would look to land the big knock-out shots whilst leaving himself open for counters. DH: ‘He came to knock me out the second time. At the weigh-in he was trying to stare me out but I could tell by looking in his eyes that his arse had gone. I looked at him and he was twitching and even though he was staring me out that is nothing.' During our conversation Danny had described the first fight flippantly, he had found himself in with a man marked-out as a special one yet Harding had felt nothing going into the fight. His training situation had led to a lack of motivation and when the fight started he relied on his better, at that point, professional style to beat Pacey. When the second fight came around Harding felt settled in his training routine. DH: ‘Nigel (Hardman) got me up for it (the second fight). In the first fight I wasn't really that up for it because I wasn't as fit but for this fight I was on the body-shield and bar-bag. When the last few rounds came up and it was hard on my legs I thought ‘I've been here before'.' Once again, for the second time, Chris came out loading-up on shots whilst Danny tucked-up when required and scored the cleaner blows. Chris was supposed to set about avenging his sole loss, instead he magnified the mistakes he made in fight one and lost a hard-fought and entertaining fight. Ten rounds of boxing between the two finished with Danny landing a four-shot salvo on Pacey as the return bout ended. Mutual antagonism left over from fight one turned into mutual respect as Chris paid Danny a post-fight visit. DH: ‘He came up to me in the changing room and said ‘you took me by surprise in the first fight and beat me fair and square for the second fight' then he shook my hand and you can't ask for more than that.' ‘The first time I beat him he was being a bit of a knob saying ‘I'll get a rematch and beat you' and all that but after last week I thought fair play.' After the fight Pacey had wondered around the Altrincham sports centre looking disconsolate whilst Danny and Nigel celebrated their win. Overall it had been a fascinating peek into how two fledgling pros went about their business. Chris went away came back to produce the same work that had seen him lose first time out. Danny, for his part, went away and made he sure he was fitter and stronger in the second bout. Stylistically the first bout was the cleaner boxing match. Fight two saw both men trade for long periods only for Chris to lose out overall. Chris can learn from this double lesson, if he does come back, though, he may find that Danny is not as forthcoming in regards to a third bout. DH: ‘If he had a title I'd do it. What is the point of fighting him for nothing? I've beaten him twice. The only thing he did different for the second fight is that he was a lot fitter. Boxing-wise nothing had changed. His hands were still by his chest.' However the next year or so pans out for Danny he can be content that he stood up for the men who stand in the ‘opponent' corner. Names like Peter Buckley and Jason Nesbitt are familiar and, it has to be said, off-putting to the ticket-buying fan. Promoters, then, look increasingly to guys who turned professional without fanfare and have no KO's yet, as Danny showed, there are plenty of boxers who take pride in their ‘0' and will defend it the best they can no matter who they fight. Not every fighter brought into a bout to lose is going to comply and if you go for a guy with a winning record, no matter how small, you may find that despite having no knock-outs and no name these lads are still game enough to win fights against the prospects.

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Gladly!! Aug 4th 2007, 10:44:17 by nealmcquade I would love to have the re-match and have been asking for it ever since   This is to Neil McQuade. Jul 9th 2007, 06:36:49 by danny harding If you think you beat me last time, then fight me again in September when the season starts. Then we will see if the record is misleading or not. Danny Harding   Beating the guy isn't always enough. Jul 6th 2007, 04:22:03 by nealmcquade I agree that there is lots of guys out there that don't get a fair crack but will still come to win. I am one of these fighters, boxing mostly away from home I have fought to win on every occasion only for the referee to give it to the "home" fighter after I clearl beat them. The truth is that the "opponent" isn't supposed to win even if they are better. This was the case when I boxed Danny Harding, now to compare our records a year later we would appear poles apart, but given fair scoring for my performances I should be rated far higher than Danny and would gladly "beat" him again to set the record straight. Sometimes even the record is highly misleading.