Harrison knocks Williams to canvas in third round
LONDON -- Audley Harrison revived his reputation as a world heavyweight title contender when he battered fellow Briton Danny Williams into a third-round defeat in their hastily-arranged non-title revenge fight on Saturday.
In the most impressive display of his labored 22-fight professional career, he left Williams bleeding with a sharp left inside the first minute and barely let up from then on.
As early as the second round the referee called the doctor in to inspect Williams's face, cut on both sides of the nose and swollen under the eye, but the fighter was allowed to go on.
Williams, conqueror of Mike Tyson two years ago, bravely came back swinging but, with blood filling his left eye, his hopes were forlorn.
Harrison kept his cool, and his distance, but unlike a year ago when he backpeddled with seemingly no intent of fighting, this time it was a sensible tactic.
Two more fierce uppercuts turned Williams's legs to pulp midway through the third round and, though he beat the count to return to the fray, the referee needed to see only one more exchange to call a halt.
"It's been a tough couple of years for me but I didn't give up," Harrison told ITV. "People said I've got no heart, said I was petrified last year, well we all have bad days at the office.
"I wasn't in the right place a year ago and it showed up in the ring. I came back today with my closet cleared out, I want to fight and all I ask is that people let me go on in my career."
Harrison, 35, has long talked himself up since his Sydney triumph but the boxing public eventually stopped listening after year upon year of low-key bouts.
Now, with the world heavyweight scene desperately short on quality, Harrison is again backing himself to go all the way.
"I've got what it takes, they don't give away Olympic gold medals, I can fight," he said. "I had eight weeks in camp, people think I just want to be a celebrity but I paid the price.
"My goal is to be heavyweight champion and hopefully the country will get behind me. In 2007 I will win the world title, in 2008 I will be undisputed. You've seen today I've got the skill, I did a number on him."
Williams, who said pre-fight that Harrison "punches like a girl, has no chin and the heart of a mouse", will have to revise that opinion after taking a terrible pummelling having accepted the fight at short notice when Matt Skelton pulled out with an injured hand.
"I've got a lot of respect for Audley, I think he can be world champion. He's shown the heart tonight and he has to show that in every single fight," he said.
Williams, 33, suffered a broken nose and needed a mass of stitches to cuts on his nose and left eye and said he had probably taken enough punishment in his career: "Maybe it might be time to say goodbye," he said.
