One of the biggest twists in a British boxing ring happened tonight at the Alexandra Palace in North London when Audley ‘A-Force’ Harrison knocked out Michael Sprott in the 12th round to claim the European Heavyweight Championship. 
Audley started the 1st round well and stamped his authority but quickly reverted back to his typical shell in the second round when Sprott started to land some quality punches.
Harrison fought back in the 3rd but stopped showing aggressiveness to his opponent in the next round, and up until the 8th it was all Sprott as A-Force looked discouraged and bewildered as to what to do when he was receiving some mean uppercuts.
The crowd, for the most part, seemed to be against Audley with their loud boos, probably did not make things any easier for him, psychologically.
In between rounds 8 and 9, Thell Torrence, Harrison’s trainer, sensed that time was running out and urged Audley to go out there and desperately try to win some rounds, and he started strongly to win the 9th but Michael was very determined to make the bout, and the EBU title, his!
By the time the 12th round rolled around, it was common sense to know that Audley needed a knockout to win the fight but, again, Sprott started quick, landing some good punches, even sending Harrison wobbling a quarter way across the ring.
But then a big left hook came out of nowhere and Michael was laid down and out, with the referee Dave Parris, not even bothering with the count.
The knockout, while not executed in exactly the same way as Sprott did to Harrison in their first 2007 bout, was a little reminiscent of that particular ending as Michael was down for quite some time before getting back to his feet again while needing oxygen.
In the post fight interview, Audley explained that he suffered an injury to his shoulder in the 2nd round and went on to claim that was the reason for his lackluster performance, he also said that he was never going to let anything stand in his way of grabbing that European title tonight!
Despite the aggressive crowd, which I am starting to be convinced boo Audley for now the sake of it, Harrison showed a lot of grit and determination to get this victory.
At this point of his career, he should have advanced completely past the Michael Sprott’s of this world but I think credit should be given to him for pulling this one out of the bag and showing that his courage in Prizefighter perhaps was not a fluke!
Who knows where Audley goes from here? I can’t see him pulling off a magical left hook like he did with Sprott against one of the Klitschko’s, or even Haye, but maybe a few title defenses are in order just so he can build up confidence in the public again.
We British can be a stubborn bunch, especially when it comes to boxing, but if Harrison can continue to back up his claims with courage and heart like he showed this evening then I think he actually could start to have the following that he craves for.
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