Despite being in his second reign as champion, the jury has long been out on Scott Harrison’s abilities to beat the internationally renowned likes of Barrera, Pacquiao and, of course, Juan Manuel Marquez who still operates at featherweight and holds the more recognised WBA and IBF belts.
The answer to that question is still hugely uncertain, but his victory over Michael Brodie was emphatic enough.
The WBO featherweight champion, from Scotland, 27, raised his game last night, with a fourth round stoppage of the bald-headed, drawn-looking local hero. Given his complacent, flat spate of performances on his home turf at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow, fighting on his opponent’s turf in hostile Manchester seems to have done Harrison some good.
He certainly didn’t fall asleep on the on job this time, and despite reports of antisocial behaviour leading to a ban from every pub in East Kilbride, seemed ruthlessly focused – if somewhat wild – on the job at hand.
Whether the Scot went hell-bent for a stoppage due to fears of a hometown decision, or simply had a point to prove after his lucky draw with competent Columbian Victor Polo could have been the clincher. But one cannot rule out that, after three previous world title attempts that ended in failure, and some gruelling struggles, challenger Brodie had nothing left in his once bottomless tank.
It just happens that he had been looking shaky in preparation, dropped twice in sparring.
As they entered the ring, Harrison looked at least a couple of divisions bigger that his challenger, and this was no illusion. Scott struggles somewhat to make feather and bulks up after the weigh-in, whereas Brodie is a former British, Commonwealth and European super bantamweight champion and is frankly a small, moderate-punching feather.
Perhaps out of tension, Harrison came out strong, forcing the kind of intense exchanges needed to neutralise the cleverer boxer. Brodie, who showed he could be caught cold when dropped in early in both his WBC feather challenges to In Jin Chi, came off it the worst. Defences open and his balance ragged, he was jarred repeatedly by clubbing rights and heavy left hooks.
If he looked at times wild and desperate, pumping out lots of inaccurate arm punches, Scott had forced Brodie into a fight – the necessary terms for a Harrison victory. Brodie was knocked around like a crash dummy and barely got through the round.
By the second, Brodie tried to get a little space to unload with bursts of hooks, but they merely bounced off the durable titlist, and although gaining some much-needed rhythm, kept walking ominously onto the heavier shots of the blue-eyed, bearded Scotsman, a foreshadowing that sealed his fate.
Round three saw Brodie bite down, and rally back with some snappy looking rights and especially left hooks.
Mixing them up well to the body and head, the Manucian had the champion backing off and looking flustered. As he accelerated the momentum, he looked not only capable of turning the fight around but also staging the type of comeback – though less dramatically – that Juan Manuel Marquez made in his gruelling draw with Pacquiao after suffering serious early trouble.
Any chance of the British derby matching the more flamboyant and exciting world players was erased early in the fourth. A pair of body shots forced Brodie to back up, and as the Englishman landed a jolting left hook to the head that turned out to be inconsequential, Harrison sunk another rib-cruncher that ended the fight.
The punch had been signalled near the end of the third, but Brodie couldn’t get any air and his effort to get up at 9 ? seemed an empty gesture of a man who had given his all to the sport but with absolutely nothing left.
His fourth failed attempt at a world title, after a robbery loss to Willie Jorrin at super bantam, the draw with In Jin Chi at feather, and a one-sided rematch loss (all three for WBC belts), Brodie’s tearful announcement that “This is the end for me” was a formality.
When quizzed how he felt after his fourth failure, Brodie’s reply was somewhere between ludicrous and heart breaking, “How can you say ‘I didn’t make it’? I had the IBO and WBF belts.” Now 31, and falling to 35-3-1 (22 KO’s), he can stand proud that he featured in some of the greatest fights seen in a British ring, including his 1997 British title win over hardy Welshman Neil Swain, a 2002 war with Pastor Maurin and not forgetting the amazing, bloody draw with In Jin Chi of October 2003 that seemed to take everything out of him.
“Perhaps the year I have had out of the ring affected me, but you can’t take it away from Harrison. He fought a good fight and he will be champion for some time to come.”
Harrison, now 24-2-2 (14 KO’s), with six defences of his title, can look forward to a far more difficult fight with Marquez (whom he failed to come to adequate terms with earlier this year) and needs that fight to gain widespread acceptance as champion.
“Every fight means a lot to me, but big respect to Michael Brodie,” he said. “There were some things said before this fight to sell tickets, but I can tell you that I respect him 100%.
“As for the future, the way I feel I would fight anybody on the planet right now.”
He might not be the best in the world, and looked patchy when faced momentarily with Brodie’s speed and skills, but when it counted last night Scott Harrison was “The Real McCoy.”
