After the “blink and you missed it” destruction of Samuel Kebede, it was Jim Watt who was most vocal in saying that Scott Harrison deserved a better quality of opponent and would need to go to America to find them.
“I would see if you can get him on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao bill in Vegas,” Jim said, talking of next February’s content. “You want to get him an opponent who can fight and make him look good – that gives the US fans a taster.”
At the time, Harrison’s manager, Frank Maloney, wanted to hear none of it. “Why should we have to give up home advantage?” he told BBC Sport. “What is wrong with the Americans coming here?”
The problem is of course that the only American willing to come here, that we’ve been told about anyway, is the lightly regarded Priest Smalls. The likes of Marco Antonio Barrera are not only unlikely to come to Scotland to fight, they’re not even American, but we know what Maloney means.
And of course it would be fantastic if Scott Harrison’s dreams of being undisputed Featherweight Champion of the world came true at Hampden.
But as Frank knows better than anyone, Lennox Lewis did not become undisputed Heavyweight champion of the world by defending WBO belts in his own back garden. And no matter how much we love him in Scotland, Scott Harrison’s profile on the world boxing stage is far below that of a boxer with a genuine shot at boxing legendary.
Whether we like the idea or not, Scott Harrison has to go to the USA to stake his claim to be the best Featherweight or Super Featherweight on the planet. And not just by calling out the winner of the Barrera – Morales fight next week from ringside, but by fighting there himself.
And judging by what he had to say to Boxing In Las Vegas, it looks like Maloney’s had time to reconsider Jim Watt’s advice and take on board what he had to say.
“I would like to see Harrison fight outside of his native Scotland in order to broaden his appeal to the public,” Maloney is quoted as saying. “Then in the coming New Year, I’d like to see him in a superfight. A number of the top names are now calling out Harrison, but I believe that the easiest fight to make would be with the WBC titlist Injin Chi.”
Maloney believes that victory over Chi is Harrison’s passport to the truly big fights.
“With two title belts, Scott would be the most sought after featherweight in the division. At that point we may be looking at further unification matches or Scott may move up a division to campaign at super feather and pursue the winner of the third Barrera – Morales fight. I believe that Scott Harrison can do anything he sets his mind to, in either of those two weight classes, but only time will tell which direction he takes in his pursuit of greatness.”
Whichever direction he does take, one thing’s looking increasingly likely. Scott Harrison will be pursuing greatness abroad.
