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Boxing: 'Naive' BBC and £1m sucker punch
By Gareth A Davies
6:55PM GMT 07 Mar 2002
THE DECISION of the*BBC to sign Audley Harrison on a two-year, 10-fight deal*reportedly worth £1 million has come under renewed criticism in the wake of this week's announcement that*his next opponent is a former publican*who runs a car park outside Bristol Airport.
Some 18 months after winning Olympic gold in Sydney*and turning pro, Harrison's four hand-picked opponents write their own headline: a private eye, a plastics factory worker, a part-time nightclub bouncer and now Greg Wedlake (record six wins, no losses) is lined up as his next victim.
Wedlake follows an undistinguished line-up of part-time fighters for the 30-year-old Harrison, who, it now appears, also has the right of veto over opponents selected by his advisers.
First there was Mike Middleton, an American private detective who failed to get through the first round. Then there was*Derek McCafferty, a plastics worker from Kettering, who lost on points, and finally*Piotr Jurzcyk, a nightclub bouncer from Poznan, Poland, who was stopped in the second round.
Sir Henry Cooper is not impressed with the BBC deal. "The viewers have not got value for money in his next fight with a publican," he said. "I'm all for fighters getting good money but Audley has put himself under too much pressure as a top-of-the-bill fighter. He did not put a foot wrong in the Olympics but since turning professional he has not looked good. In 18 months he should have had eight or nine fights. He has had three
By Gareth A Davies
6:55PM GMT 07 Mar 2002
THE DECISION of the*BBC to sign Audley Harrison on a two-year, 10-fight deal*reportedly worth £1 million has come under renewed criticism in the wake of this week's announcement that*his next opponent is a former publican*who runs a car park outside Bristol Airport.
Some 18 months after winning Olympic gold in Sydney*and turning pro, Harrison's four hand-picked opponents write their own headline: a private eye, a plastics factory worker, a part-time nightclub bouncer and now Greg Wedlake (record six wins, no losses) is lined up as his next victim.
Wedlake follows an undistinguished line-up of part-time fighters for the 30-year-old Harrison, who, it now appears, also has the right of veto over opponents selected by his advisers.
First there was Mike Middleton, an American private detective who failed to get through the first round. Then there was*Derek McCafferty, a plastics worker from Kettering, who lost on points, and finally*Piotr Jurzcyk, a nightclub bouncer from Poznan, Poland, who was stopped in the second round.
Sir Henry Cooper is not impressed with the BBC deal. "The viewers have not got value for money in his next fight with a publican," he said. "I'm all for fighters getting good money but Audley has put himself under too much pressure as a top-of-the-bill fighter. He did not put a foot wrong in the Olympics but since turning professional he has not looked good. In 18 months he should have had eight or nine fights. He has had three
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