Bore - Harrison Outpoints Arias
Published September 7, 2008 by Martin Bean
Audley Harrison laboured to a 10 round points victory over Brazilian George Arias in yet another lackluster display in his relatively short, yet controversial career.
The referee’s card read 98-92 for Harrison, which was outrageously wide. Harrison simply did not do enough work to justify such a wide margin of victory.
Harrison entered the ring looking in fantastic physical condition, whilst Arias was much smaller—in truth, a Cruiserweight going in with Harrison for the pay day.
Harrison started sharply looking for his best punch—a vicious left uppercut—and had some success. But Arias kept plugging away and was never in any serious danger. Harrison took the first two rounds on my card with the more powerful work but Arias was still lively, looking to land clusters of punches based around speed rather than power.
In the third, action was almost non-existent, prompting the crowd to start booing loudly. To be honest, the booing was harsh—Harrison had been decent in the first two rounds and it appeared the crowd were looking for a reason to get on Audley’s back; he’s never made many friends with his cocky demeanour as professional, which is incredible when you think back to Sydney in 2000 when he was welcomed home as a genuine nationwide hero.
The action from the third onwards was fairly repetitive, Audley would land a few good left hands (Audley’s jab was awful, being flicked out with no force behind it), Arias would be busier, landing some nice counters —occasionally making Audley look uncomfortable, but usually just landing ‘pitter patter’ type shots. However, this work was enough for Arias to nick a few of the rounds. Coming out for the 10th and last round, I had it level at 86-86! Harrison’s laziness looked like it might cost him the bout on my card!
But Harrison then came to life, as if he could finally open up with the finish line in sight. When Audley opens up and lets his boxing flow, he is a joy to behold—I don’t care what anyone says, he has more ability than 99% of heavyweights in the current division, but he seems to lack the ‘bottle’ or confidence when it really matter.
In the end I had Harrison a 96-95 winner but I was not happy at viewing such a spectacle on a pay per view card. If Harrison-Rogan is rearranged and Harrison boxes in a similarly sloppy fashion, Rogan has a real chance of success, provided his work rate is good.
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