Audley Harrison was born in England 10.26.1971 in London, has Jamaican roots. Winner of the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia. In 2000, he won the gold of the Olympic Games in Australia (Sydney) in the most prestigious weight category + 91. He has the title of European champion in 2010 according to EBU. Audley Harrison is the world champion among professionals in the not very prestigious boxing version of the WBF.
The boxer's amateur career was swift, and many experts from the world of boxing believed that he would achieve the highest results in the professionals and be able to replace the legendary British boxer Lennox Lewis. But Audley Harrison, whose photo is presented in the article, did not live up to his expectations.
Amateur career
Audley Harrison (by the standards of amateur boxing) started late to engage in this sport - at the age of 19. He participated in international tournaments of various levels, European and world championships, but did not have serious victories before the triumph at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. For the victory he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
He lost to the Turkish Sinan Samil Samu, the Belarusian Sergei Lyakhovich, as well as the Russian Alexei Lezin, whom he could defeat ahead of schedule in his first fight at the 2000 Olympics. The Russian looked good in this fight and led in the long run, but in the fourth round Harrison Audley was able to inflict a strong left hook and stagger Alexei Lezin. After the referee counted the Russian, he decided to stop the fight. The remaining three fights against the Ukrainian, Italian and Kazakh Harrison held confidently and won unconditional victories.
Audley Harrison is a boxer who won the first gold medal of the Olympics among British masters of leather gloves in the heavyweight category.
Professional career
After success at the Olympics, Harrison decided to go into professional boxing. He wrote an autobiographical book in 2001. He signed a contract with the BBC channel to display 10 of his fights for a serious amount (£ 1 million) and made his debut in a professional ring in the same 2001.
The start of his career was successful, Harrison began with a victory over Julian Long over an American citizen. By the fifth battle, he defeated his undefeated compatriot Mark Krens. Further, he won victories, mostly knockouts.
Audley's main mistake
According to Audley, his first mistake in the career of a professional boxer was the combination of performances in the ring and work in a personal promotion company. He founded it in 2001 and named A-Force Promotions.
Audley Harrison could not completely concentrate on his performances, and this played a cruel joke with him. And also he was too frivolous about training. The boxer believed that luck would not leave him, even if you do not make special efforts. Until a certain time, everything went well, but he won victories, while the level of rivals was not too good. He was helped by his excellent natural data.
Five years of his performances in the professional ring Audley Harrison, whose career was developing successfully, was unbeatable. He changed his place of residence from his native England to the USA in 2005 and married his girlfriend Rachel. The wedding was played in the historical homeland - in Jamaica. Today, the couple are happily married and have a daughter, Ariella and a son, Hudson.
After that, Harrison completely relaxed and with the disagreement of the judges suffered the first defeat in his professional career from compatriot Dani Williams. Audley's next fight was lost to American Dominique Guin. After these failures, many experts and ordinary boxing fans wrote him off.
World title fight
Audley Harrison never made the right conclusions. He did not listen to the advice of others and continued to take the training process frivolously. Most likely, he could not understand that his boxing career was collapsing. The boxer was able to take revenge from Denis Williams, whom he had previously lost. But in 2007, Harrison for the first time in his career lost by knockout to the Englishman Michael Sprott. Later, he is again defeated by the decision of the judges from the British Martin Rogan.
After failures, Harrison still thought about his career. Audley did not perform for about a year, and after returning to the ring he began a white streak, it lasted a short period. Harrison won the Prizefighter tournament.
After that, he won by knockout over Michael Sprott, taking revenge, and became European champion. Thanks to these successes, the boxer was able to enter the championship fight (according to one of the most prestigious versions) against the current WBA world champion - Briton David Hay.
Before the fight, Harrison announced that he would knock out his opponent. But the battle was far from in Audley's favor. After two and a half rounds of the battle, Harrison was unable to deliver more than one hit, reaching the target, but missed as many as 33.
David Haye in the third round began to attack rapidly, he was much faster than Audley and inferior to him in size. Hay was able to cut down his opponent on the ring flooring. After the referee counted, Haye hit hard again, and Audley could not answer him. The referee decided to stop the match.
Ending a sports career
Audley Harrison is a professional boxer who has already completed his career. He won the first recovery match. In the second fight, he met with the British David Price and was knocked out in the first round. Harrison was able to win a second time in the Prizefighter tournament. After her, he was knocked out again in 2013 in the first round by American boxer Deontay Wilder, who currently has the world title, according to the most prestigious version of the WBC. After this fight, Audley announced the completion of a professional career, but later decided to return to the sport.
