Boxing: Reports in the press have made Scott Harrison an angry man and William Abelyan is going to feel the force of his wrath on Saturday, finds Stewart Fisher
OF all the verdicts which could have been handed down, the one which Sheriff Rae Small finally settled upon could hardly have been much worse for William Abelyan. Not only was Scott Harrison this week found not guilty of assaulting a man in a toilet cubicle of the Tower Bar in East Kilbride, freeing him to make a mand atory second defence in his second spell as WBO World Featherweight Champion against the American/Armenian, but he was also significantly angered by some of the “lies” that emerged about him during the whole process.
After injuries and cancell ations forced initially scheduled dates for the fight in March and May to be shelved, Harrison will finally find an appropriate outlet for all that pent-up aggression when the bout gets the go-ahead at the third time of asking on Saturday night at Braehead Arena.
“Basically, I feel more hungry and determined because there were a lot of lies written about me in the papers, and I’ve found it unbelievable how papers could not get their facts right before they put it in the papers,” said Harrison, whose future brother-in-law Steve Reoch was convicted for his part in the incident. “It has just opened my eyes up to another side of this game. It is something that happened a year ago and all I did was break up a fight. Obviously it is good to get it out of the road. It has been hanging over my head for a long time now. I was found not guilty and that draws a line under it.
“But it has made me angrier,” he added. “People want to try and bring you back down so that makes me want to keep it all going for longer. I am just basically going to take it all into the ring on Saturday night. I thrive on aggression.”
Energy is the most valuable of boxing commodities, but Harrison rejects suggestions this rage makes him a loose cannon set to misfire. “It will just be controlled anger, that’s what boxing is all about,” he said. “I am not going to go in there and start throwing wild punches or anything like that, I’m a professional fighter, a two-time world champ, so I know what I am doing in there. It will just be controlled aggression as it always is.”
Throughout the entire protracted legal process, the 26-year-old Scot displayed a typically steely dedication to shuffle his training work-outs at dawn and dusk around his court appearances. His two o’clock sessions were out of the question, but other than that he claims no detrimental effect on his preparation, citing a body/fat ratio of 5.2% as proof of his condition, and a belief he is punching “faster, harder, and smarter” than ever before. A new diet which includes sweets after training and frosted breakfast cereal, has been introduced under the guidance of Dr Niall Ferguson of Glasgow University, while Patrick Mullins has provided some “quality sparring”.
His boxer’s dedication to the cause has taken even Frank Maloney aback. His worldly-wise manager was amazed at Harrison’s resilience in resisting the temptation to postpone the hearing until after the fight. “He can have a court case, and put his whole career in jeopardy in front of the sheriff, when he could have had it put off until after the fight,” said Maloney. “It just shows what a special person he is.”
If it needs it – and there are still tickets for the show available – the fight has also been given added spice by the continued trash-talking of Abelyan, a 25-year-old who left the Armenian capital of Yerevan for a new life in the States at the age of 8, not to mention the fact he has been consulting with Mexican (and Harrison camp nemesis) Manuel Medina, who first stripped Harrison of his WBO belt then surrendered it again.
“Medina doesn’t speak any English anyway, and judging by the second fight I don’t know how he will be able to help him,” Harrison’s father, and trainer, Peter chimes in.
Weekends in the Harrison household recently have been spent viewing videotapes of his opponent’s previous fights, and Harrison Jnr doesn’t see much to concern him other than the fact that “anyone who is fighting for a world title is going to try to jump up an extra five levels”. The Scot does not expect the fight to last the distance.
It would be incorrect to posit all this as complacency, but it doesn’t mean he isn’t already setting his sights on fights in the future. “I want to defend my title for as long as I can, and eventually unify the belts and maybe move up a weight class,” Harrison says.
After Abelyan, standing in the way of fulfilling that ambition are Marco Antonio Barrera and Injin Chi.
“I believe I could beat the two of them right now ,” he said.
“That is two fights I would love to have – but first I have to get rid of Abelyan.
“We have been talking about him for months and months so it will be good to finally get him out of the way and send him back home with a bad defeat on his record.”
Harrison, on the other hand, is intent on keeping his own record squeaky clean.
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