Olympic gold medallist and former heavyweight title challenger, Audley Harrison, has looked back to one of the highlights of his professional career – knocking out Michael Sprott to win the European title in 2010.
Harrison’s pro campaign promised so much after his success at Sydney 2000, but it failed to live up to expectations, being unable to claim the world title that he seemed destined for as an amateur.
‘A-Force’ did challenge for world honours, after a phenomenal knockout over Sprott over a decade ago, where he fought with one arm for the majority of the fight, picking up an early injury but persevering and finding the knockout punch in the final round after being well behind on all three scorecards.
On Sky Sports, Harrison reminisced of the show-stopping finish and explained his mentality throughout the bout that drove him to achieving the dramatic stoppage victory.
“Yeah, it was crazy. In the third-round I had torn my pectoral again, for the second time, so I was fighting with one arm, switching back and forth between southpaw and orthodox. I remember I had said to Eddie and Barry [Hearn] that losing was not an option, I had to win this fight.”
“I know Michael [Sprott] hates to see this all the time, he was beating me up but I had that in my mind, ‘losing is not an option’, when he gave me a little peep I just turned it over. My balance was all bad, I was falling over, my balance was off but losing was not an option and I just had to find it. That left-hand has saved me many times in my career and that was definitely one of my greatest [moments].”
The win lead to Harrison’s lone world title shot, against David Haye. However, the fight didn’t live up to the hype with ‘The Hayemaker’ dominating the contest and retaining his WBA belt via third round stoppage.