Why did Audley Harrison fail?

Was a beast as a amature,Remember him winning gold at the olympics thinking hes going to dominate in the pros.
Chinny,gun shy,who knows but he blew a heap of people away at the start of his career,some fighters never get over a ko loss,and probally affected him mentally to the point of questioning his own ability.Still at end of day he won a Olympic gold,national and commonwealth title,won the tough man series and fought for the world title,and made a lot of money along the way.

 

Cos he sucked

the end

 

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Not all Olympic finals are that hard to win, Lewis wasn`t that good until Steward took over his training the same went for Wlad, Audley didn`t have the right trainer as a pro and looked awful when winning gold at the olympics.

 

Because he was petrified of being punched in the face.

 

He appeared to be fearful when fighting.

In the fight with Haye, he seemed like a frightened old woman. After that, I always called him Audrey instead of Audley.

 

Audley Harrison isn't as bad as he's made out to be these days. His mentality was certainly his biggest weakness. He simply wasn't resilient enough to go further, to the point he almost became paralysed in the last 5 years of his career once the bell was rung. Normally well publicised boxers hit a roadblock physically as they age - their reflexes, stamina, speed or general vigour leaves them. Harrison couldn't overcome mental scarring. Of course, what ended up happening was that he was too scared to through a punch - look at the Haye, Price and Wilder bouts.

Some say he was scared of getting hurt. Others claim Audley was scared of hurting others. A lovely guy.

 

Lots of reasons. He didn't have proper management. He had a big ego, and British fans didn't like that, especially then. The British fans also hadn't had a winner at heavyweight in a while (they didn't even like Lennox Lewis for the most part when he was a young champ because he fought for Canada in the Olympics) and turned on Audley because they felt if he had a big TV deal he should fight big names right away. He didn't. So they blasted him for that. Injuries slowed him down, too. His age ... he wasn't young when he turned pro. Too many to mention.

He was very talented, though. I always rooted for him. I remember ordering a low budget PPV that included the first Harrison-Danny Williams fight. I was shocked how the British announcers just had nothing positive to say about Audley at all. Hell, I thought he looked fine and I thought Harrison won. And they were so happy when the decision came back that he'd lost.

I never got the hate people directed at that guy.

 

Getting to them isn't always easy. Alexei Lezin wasn't exactly a slouch. If I'm not mistaken, he was the favorite that year to win it all.

 

He was a big guy even for a HW...
I'm guessing he was used to guys folding under his power and pressure early days but that stopped working when he stepped up in class and he didnt know how to deal with it because he had never had before....kinda reminds me of Michael Grant in a way, but I think Grant had more heart.

If I remember correctly didn't Audley get KOd by Dominick Guinn? That guy had a reputation of bringing the truth out of young fighters, and many others failed the test

 

No, it was a decision.

 

Too much money too early.

 

Audley Harrison even in his amateur days had a cocaine problem that unfortunately got worse when he turned pro. Not to mention as Harrison’s career progressed he was putting more energy into gambling and drugs then he was in boxing. He was such a waste of talent as a pro. By the time he kicked his drug and gambling addiction he was already in his late 30’s to early 40’s, so it was too late to bounce back.

Here is Harrison talking about some of his out of ring issues.

“We all lose control sometimes and I lost control.

"The main thing is I got through it - some people don't come out of the darkness."

Audley made history at the 2000 Olympics in Syndey when he became the first Brit to win super-heavyweight gold. He went on to sign a £1 million deal with BBC Sport but was devastated when boxing was dropped from the channel's schedules in 2004.

He said he first started gambling on fruit machines aged 9 but things got worse when he moved to Las Vegas.

"I gambled a lot of money," he said.

"I was an addict at nine and it was always there festering, waiting for me to go back - like an alcoholic walking past a liquor store."

But Audley beat his habit after quitting Sin City and is now happier than ever enjoying family life with wife Raychel, 33, and children Ariella, seven and Hudson Hugh, one.

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Here is Audley talking about his poker career and how much energy he puts into poker despite still being an active fighter. This was around the time he was preparing for his title fight with David Haye.

We caught up with Audley who is in the middle of training for his World Title fight vs

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on November 13 in Manchester:

PokerNews: You already have a pretty impressive tournament record but you have stayed under the radar, why have you kept your poker quiet?

Audley Harrison: Anything I do I want to be the best and poker is a long road, you can’t be an overnight success. I was living in America and found it good that I could just play and learn the game and nobody knew who I was. I could develop as a player, get competent and not have the pressure of people in England knowing I played. As far as I was concerned I got enough bad stick as it was and if they heard I was at the poker tables they would give me more and say I wasn’t serious about boxing. Obviously my career is a pro boxer but I classify myself as a semi pro poker player. I didn’t want to get it mixed up in the media and the public eye, so I thought I would keep it quiet until the time was right.

AH: People say you should start at $1/$2, my learning ground was $5/$10 and $10/$20 in the Bellagio, which was an expensive education. Cash games and tournaments are completely different games, I was really just getting spanked by full time professional cash game players. Now I live in California I play at the Commerce & the Bike and again I am playing with the best, full time pros who know how to take your money.

I played the World Series of Poker in 2007, paid my 10 G’s and got totally spanked by Allen Cunningham, he had position on me and he really gave me a lesson in poker. I’ve played with Daniel Negreanu, Roland De Wolfe, Hoyt Corkins, Marcel Luske, Steve Dannemen, James MacKey – all pros and I have picked something up from all of them. When I went back to Vegas this year I knew I was gonna do something special, I thought it would be in the World Series but it happened in the Venetian Cup, 600 players, all good players, $2100 buyin and I was happy to come in 3rd, my bench mark is top 3 and I hit it. I’m ready to play with any of the pros, I know most of their styles and I believe I can hold my own. I have a varied game, a mixed style, I’m very hard to read, I know how to read my opponents, I understand the statistics, implied odds, pot odds etc- the whole game, so I’m ready.

PN: We presume that poker is banned right now while you are preparing for a big fight?

AH: No poker, poker is banned, by me. It requires my attention and boxing is my life, it’s my passion and boxing is where I have to achieve my goals. I know that I will get there in poker, I know 100%, so after the World Series this summer I said no more poker and completely locked down. The previous year I said the same thing and had to really force myself to avoid watching poker on TV or reading magazines or websites. Last year when I fought in Prizefighter I didn’t even know that Phil Ivey made the main event final table, that’s how much I knocked off from poker.

PN: Recently there have been some high profile cases of boxers going off the rails when they retire, it seems like poker is the ideal thing to turn to when you eventually do hang up the gloves?

AH: I used to get a lot of stick early on for being a celebrity boxer and going to film premieres, being a bit of a play boy but the thing about me was my life was never gonna be a rehearsal, I have one life to live, I make no apologies and I’ve learnt my lesson as I’ve gone along. I was locked up when I was 16-18, I dabbled in drugs, I drank, I smoked, I was a playboy – I’ve got the t-shirt in every facet of life, so there is nothing I need to do when I retire. I’m a happily married man now with a beautiful daughter and a beautiful wife, I have no regrets. When I retire I will be happy and there will be nothing where I say “**** I missed out”. That is the difference between me and other fighters who made lots of early sacrifices and feel like they missed out on something when they retire.

PN: You’ve waited a very long time before signing a deal with a poker room, were you at all tempted to wait till after your fight with Haye because potentially having a World Title could get you a better deal?

AH: Obviously

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are one of the biggest names out there and I do play on Full Tilt. For them to come knocking and offer me a deal obviously I’m gonna jump at it. It’s a great deal for me now and when I win the title it’s gonna be an even better deal.

PN: How much do you play online?

AH: I don’t have much time to play online but when the big events come up like FTOPS I treat them just like I do the World Series. The best result I’ve had was coming 13th in the Full Tilt $1 Million Guaranteed and should have made the final as I was the chip leader for so long but I got overconfident and got too aggressive, so I’ve even had a good result online. Another one of my goals is to take down either the Full Tilt $1 Million or the $750,000 Guaranteed in the next 12 months.

PN: Is your screen name something boxing related or something that is obviously you?

AH: You would never know it’s me from my screen name but now I’ve done this deal with Full Tilt you will be able to come and play with me, so if u wanna play Audley Harrison come and look for my bright red avatar.

PN: Onto the big fight, you’ve taken a lot of criticism in your career but are you starting to find the British public getting behind you?

AH: David is coming across like a little egotistical prat and is rubbing people up the wrong way, I may talk the talk but nobody can say Audley Harrison is a bad guy. He knows he is gonna be in the fight of his life, I guarantee it’s gonna be man against boy, master against student.

When I finish the journey it’s going to be the greatest comeback in British sport, it’s gonna be a movie, you couldn’t write this story. A guy who was written off, playing poker in Vegas, bumps into Eddie Hearn, does prize fighter, wins it, wins the European title with one arm vs Michael Sprott a guy who knocked him out before, now fighting David Haye a guy who I mentored and who looked up to me, for the World Title. This is the greatest comeback in British sport bar none.

Audley Harrison vs David Haye takes place on November 13 live on

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He was scared, that never helped. Lol

 

Just didn't have the minerals.