|
|
|
|
|
|
Haye-Harrison + Green-Briggs
15-Nov-10 11:26
There were a few who tried to connect the dots by joining the Haye-Harrison debacle with the Danny Green-Paul Briggs controversy on 21 July 2010 in Perth.
I stand accused of letting the Green-Briggs fight slide by without critical comment. Not true.
In the minutes after the match I wrote, “Only Briggs knows for sure how badly he was hurt. Injured or not, it was a terrible advertisement for boxing.”
Some claimed I even defended the Green-Briggs outcome. Not true again.
The day after the match, I sat in the Fox Sports News television studios in Pyrmont and stated live to air that the fight was not rigged. To this day, some still believe that there was some mafia style involvement in the outcome.
I defended that there was a real punch which landed, that there was something physically wrong with Briggs and agreed that the whole fiasco had cast a dark cloud over all boxing in Australia. It still has. Just as I wrote about the Haye-Harrison fight, there are people who watched or attended the Green-Briggs match who said, “never again.”
In my new book, “UNDISPUTED: A Golden Era in Australian Boxing”, I write of the Green-Briggs match on page 274, “The end result was damage to the reputation of both boxers and to the sport of boxing as a whole.”
The Western Australian Professional Combat Sports Commission announced on 3 November 2010 that Briggs would be fined $75,000 of his $200,000 purse after the controversial 29 second loss to Green.
Commission chairman Simon Watters told the media in Perth, “Mr Briggs knew due to his condition with his nervous system and his physical ability to mount a credible defence, he wasn’t a worthy and genuine competitor.”
In doing so, the Commission also cleared Green of any illegal involvement and that a punch had landed.
But that does not clear Green of his moral obligation as a promoter to put on a card that will enhance the reputation of the sport, not sully it. Like Green, David Haye has to take on extra responsibility as the co-promoter of his fights.
Others suggest that my own pre-fight pick compromised my claim. Not true. In fact, it makes what transpired even worse and highlights Harrison’s incomprehensible performance. The match was for the WBA heavyweight world title. Something he had coveted and predicted victory on ever since his Olympic Gold medal win. With so much on the line, his goal, his career, his reputation, surely he owed himself a better effort in the pursuit of victory?
The critical point raised is that if fights like Haye-Harrison and Green-Briggs continue to be put forward as elite boxing product for consumers, (just think for a second about how many millions of people around the world saw parts of the Haye-Harrison match), the sport will surely perish sooner, rather than later.
Paul Upham
Content Editor, SecondsOut.com
uppy@optusnet.com.au
Subscribe to feed
Print
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
