The big news in boxing this week is that David Haye will fight Audley 'A-Force' Harrison at the MEN Arena in Manchester on November 13. There are so many things wrong with that sentence, I hardly know where to start.
Perhaps the least obvious though, is the location. Why Manchester for God's sake? I've got nothing against the city, apart from a certain football team I'm not going to mention, but why on earth have they chosen to stage a fight between two London fighters, with big London-based support, in er, Manchester. It makes as much sense as moving the Manchester derby to bloody Wembley.
Anyway, that said, it's an intriguing proposition wherever it's held. Harrison is best described as a joke without a punchline, while Haye is obviously taking time out from his oft-stated mission to 'clean up the heavyweight division'. Some have said, rather unkindly, that Mr Harrison doesn't deserve a shot at the title. Which may be true but at least he holds the European heavyweight title and the fight is of interest to British fans if only to enjoy the spectacle of two former friends swinging their fists at each other. But before all that, we've the even bigger spectacle of Haye/Harrison 'trash-talking' in the media to look forward to, for ooh, the next eight weeks or so. Harrison, who will be 39 when he climbs into the ring, certainly talks a good game, as he proved at the press conference. And apparently he does still have some fans, as proved by his appearance on Soccer AM this morning. Will whoever these people are please make themselves known at reception...
In other news, one of the men who Haye should have been fighting, Wladimir Klitschko, defends his IBF/WBO/IBO world titles tonight against Nigerian Samuel Peter. In their last meeting five years ago, Peter managed to put Klitschko on the canvas three times before eventually losing on points. However, having reviewed the footage just now on YouTube, they looked like pretty soft knock-downs, and I don't think the big Ukrainian was ever in real trouble. Still, it's probably the most-entertaining encounter the younger Klitschko has been involved in for the past few years, which isn't saying a lot considering he's played a starring role in some of the biggest boxing snooze-athons of all time. While Peter has an impressive 73% knock-out rate, I don't think he'll pull it off tonight and old Wlad will probably wrestle his way to another points win (2/1 Betfred), taking another little piece of boxing's ravaged soul with him.
