Audley Harrison

It was nearly a year ago when British boxing fans were given a new hope. A new fighter was coming onto the scene, sweeping all before him in taking the super-heavyweight gold at the Sydney Olympics. He gave us hope. He promised us much. He made us think that finally, after having to put up with "Pseudo-Brit" Lennox Lewis, and the somewhat disappointing careers of Herbie Hide and Frank Bruno, we finally had a heavyweight who was capable of going all the way. His name - Audley Harrison.

At the age of 29, Harrison seemed to be at the perfect point in his career to enter the professional ranks. We all thrilled at his Olympic win. Britain hadn't won a boxing gold medal since before I was born. All the boxing pundits predicted bright things for Harrison, including a reign as world champion.

Since then, Harrison has  - well, he hasn't done much.

Granted, he has been hampered by a couple of injuries, but in his first year as a professional, he has managed just one fight, and that was against someone who, in wrestling terms, was nothing more than a jobber.

When you look back at the other great heavyweight champions of the past decade or so, you see that in his first year as a pro, Mike Tyson had over fifteen fights, and Lennox Lewis had more than ten.

It has been said that heavyweight boxers reach their prime much later in their careers, compared to boxers in other weight divisions. The prime examples of this are the likes of Evander Holyfield, Lewis, and, of course, everyone's favourite grandad, George Foreman.

But Harrison is becoming something of an enigma, mainly because he just isn't fighting. The sad thing is that, although he has the talent, for the first twenty fights or so, he'll be thrown an endless pile of jobbers.

There are, perhaps, two people who could give Harrison a bit of a fight.

The first, and please don't laugh at this, is Butterbean. Granted, I've only seen him fight a couple of times, and one of those was against Mike Barton (Bart Gunn), someone not really known for his boxing skills, but this man has power. He may not exactly be in "prime condition", but a contest between Harrison and Butterbean would be very interesting, and would also get Harrison noticed in the important American market.

The second would probably appeal to every British boxing fan - Herbie Hide. Like Harrison, Hide promised a great deal early on in his career. Although rather small for a heavyweight, Hide had the ability to go all the way. But sadly, personal problems, including run-ins with the law, have hampered his progress. Despite winning the WBO version of the heavyweight crown, which, in itself, isn't really a noteworthy achievement, Hide is another one of those fighters that promised much but failed to deliver. A Hide-Harrison fight would look good on paper.

So what's next for Mr. Harrison? Well, hopefully, a fight sometime soon. After all, at this rate, if he does fulfill his promise and become world champion, he'll be drawing an old age pension when he does it.