Audley; worst European Heavyweight Champ, since...

Audley Harrison winning the European title on Friday night, is a new low point for sport.

But with the title having some very weak champions in the past, he probably is not the worse, but how bad is he?

 

Not quite as boring as his fights!

Audley had the British boxing world at his feet after the 2000 Olympics.

He was going to fight for British title in five fights, he knew time was not on his side, so he was going to be great, quick.

But look at his year end resumes:

End of 2001: 3-0 for the year: Injury cost him six months, but still should be on course for domestic dominance by the end of the 2002...

End of 2002: 5-0 for the year: Took another six month break and looked very lackluster fighting his two domestic opponents who were both no more than fringe top 10 fighters for Britain. The Beeb (aka us) has so far paid £700,000 to watch Audley crack the lower ranks of the British top 10. Also broke his promise of a British title by his fifth fight...

End of 2003: 6-0 for the year: Looked good beating his only British opponent, and had this been his first year as a pro, it would of been seen as a fair start, sadly Audley is in his third year as a pro, and has yet to fight a fighter who could be considered one of the 200 best in the world...

End of 2004: 3-0 for the year: Inactive for much of the year, unable to stop the only known opponent Francis, despite Francis being on a 0-6 with three KO defeats run...

End of 2005: 2-1 for the year: After beefing up his record with another couple of wins over American journeyman, Audley finally fights the sort of opponent he claimed he would be fighting five fights into his career, and he loses, in a dull boring fight.

End of 2006: 2-1 for the year: A defeat to a former prospect seems to of finished him off, but credit to Audley, he saves his career by beating Danny Williams in a rematch and after five years once again his career has positive momentum

End of 2007: 0-1 for the year: Any momentum is duly stopped when Audley is flattened in three rounds by the sort of opponent Audley claimed he would be beating sometime in 2001.

End of 2008: 2-1: A couple of gimme wins and then defeat to a honest trier, but still a limited Martin Rogan.

End of 2009: No fights: An exhibition staged on SKY is Audley's only exposure this year. As a former Olympic champion Audley adapts well to win a one night tournament.

This tournament, in this era of boxing, gets Audley the EBU title shot, but Foreman looked a lot more impressive beating his five opponents in one afternoon, and he got mocked mercilessly for it, how times have changed.

In an era of poor to pathetic alphabet champions at Heavyweight, when former Middleweights can win these crowns, a man with the amateur pedigree of Super Heavyweight Olympic Champion has spent 10 years building up a 2-3 record with top domestic opposition, and his only other step into fighting a fringe top 30 Heavyweight consisted of his other defeat to Guinn.

That is why IMO, Audley is worthy of this mocking thread...

 

Some well thought out counter arguments there my friend.

 

Vitali Klitschko has shown himself a legitimate top three Heavyweight of the 21st century, he has had his up and downs no doubt and the Byrd fight will hardly go down as his finest moment, and he will have to live with that action costing him any chance of ever being debated with the names of the finest ever Heavyweights.

But Audley has (at best) one win against a top 30 Heavyweight of the time, and was being soundly outpointed by a Journeyman Heavyweight, who had already flattened him previously.

There is little evidence to suggest one left hook his going to turn around his career.

But yes, I would say after 10 years as a pro, an Olympic Gold Medalist has had his second finest moment in a pro ring, when he gutted out an injured shoulder to turn around a fight he was losing to a 32-14 journeyman, also in the process avenging a previous defeat.

 

Boxing and writing are two very different things, what is your measure for this?

I would say I can string together a number of sentences (granted poorly) to make a paragraph, and indeed from there, a number of paragraphs....

Yet I rarely see Audley throw combinations in a round let alone a number of combinations in a round, even poor ones.

And for Audley to then string together a number of combinations for a few rounds is as about as rare as a Tasmanian Tiger!

For my writing to be as poor as Audley's boxing it would need to go.

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In the last few seconds, I have this brilliant story, that could salvage everything for the time being, and make you give me the benefit of the doubt and thus, give me another chance...

 

Audley wants the abuse, to be fair I play right into his hands by giving him the oxygen of infamy.

And if you really think you deserve to be European Champion on the strength of a last gasp victory over a 32-14 Journeyman, then I think you might interested in some prime real estate in downtown Baghdad, it could all be yours for a bargain price...