In this case, it probably is!! At the very least a draw with a lot of crap being thrown into the ring!
Firstly, I won't have Audley disrespected like this, sure he wasn't world level but he was an Olympic Gold medal winner, Commonwealth, British and European Heavyweight Champion and fought once for a world title. Yoka because of all the hype back in the day has to be one of the biggest let downs in heavyweight history. I remember when David Price was apparently the man to take over from the K Brothers, it ended up in disaster and ridicule. Well, Yoka is worse, way worse.
Agreed. I've always had a soft spot for Audley. His run in the Olympics was very impressive. Nobody had anything negative to say about him when he won the gold. If you watch those Olympic fights even today, he looks really good. Like you said, he won all those British and European belts. He challenged for a heavyweight title. He compiled a very good 31-7 record. And he avenged three of those losses. (I didn't think he lost his first fight to Danny Williams to begin with.) I certainly don't see Yoka fighting another 25 bouts and winning 20 of them to equal Audley's win-loss record. Hell, Anthony Joshua might not end up with a better win-loss record than Audley. A number of factors stood in Audley's way. He turned 30 a couple months after moving to the paid ranks. He shouldn't have tried to manage his own career. And he had an assortment of injuries. If you start late, don't have the best management, sit out for stretches due to injuries and stumble, by the time you rebuild, age is already becoming a factor. (Age will be a crutch for Joyce soon, too ) But I believe an even bigger factor was following Lennox Lewis. Even though Lennox didn't win gold for the Brits, like Audley did, Lennox's pro career was winding down when Audley turned pro and British fans expected Audley to be as good as Lennox (which few will ever live up to). When he wasn't, they pounced on him. I'm sure fans later on will give Harrison more credit. Especially after other Gold medalists like Yoka don't achieve as much as Audley did.
