WHEN the posters and merchandise hyped the latest defence of Scott Harrison?s world title as ?Man on Fire? there had been no reason to suspect the event would end with a sense of burning injustice for the fighter who was mentioned in small print. Harrison, it was assumed, would simply trample over his latest featherweight fodder, Victor Polo, en route to the career-defining fight he was building towards in the United States.
Instead, Scottish boxing could not feel especially proud of itself at Glasgow?s Braehead Arena on Friday night as Harrison retained his WBO featherweight belt, courtesy of a draw which was exceptionally hard on Polo, the admirable Colombian challenger.
Yes, Scotland was grateful still to have a world champ ion, but at the end of the evening no-one found it easy to look Polo in the eye. He deserved better.
Braehead can be a partisan, inspirational venue for Har rison but his supporters? sense of fair play ensured that they were subdued as they left the arena after 11pm. Most felt Polo had done enough to take the fight and inflict the third defeat of Harrison?s professional career.
It was the fourth time the 34-year-old Polo had lost a world title fight by a split dec ision and his manager, Pedro Bossio ? a dapper figure with the relaxed demeanour of someone incapable of being surprised by what goes on in boxing ? made some weary observations about the judges favouring a home champion.
?A rematch in Las Vegas would be beautiful ? get him out of Glasgow and we would win,? he said.
Harrison is eager to fight in America, of course, but had not envisaged the inconvenience of being asked for a rematch by Polo.
Few had thought the Colombian capable of the imperturbable resistance which he brought to his work over 12 rounds against the bigger, stronger Harrison, but then few had thought much about Polo at all.
Harrison?s fourth defence since regaining his title from Manuel Medina 14 months ago, was supposed to be no more than a convenient showcase by which his power and relentlessly aggressive style would impress the American boxing media and draw out a so-called superfight against Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny Pacquiao or Injin Chi.
But Harrison would have to raise his performance immeasurably if he found himself in that class. On Friday?s evidence, he could not cope with any of them.
Contemplating future opponents was disrespectful to Polo but, as far as manager Frank Maloney was concerned, it also proved damagingly distracting to Harrison.
?When this fight was made against Polo I told everyone it would be one of the hardest fights of Scott?s career and I tried to ban talk of any ?big? fights in the future,? said Maloney. ?Everyone got carried away with big fights down the road instead of the fighter in front of us.
?As a team, we have to stop thinking about a fight beyond the one that?s in front of us. If one judge had changed that score tonight we were out of the ballpark. But the pressure on this boy going into the ring, when everyone is talking about Barrera and Chi…you have to hand it to him.?
With his left eye almost closed and that side of his face covered by heavy purple bruising ? his opponent?s faced was unmarked ? Harrison hardly seemed in the condition to consider taking on the elite of his division.
Nevertheless he put a characteristically positive spin on being taken the distance against someone he had wanted to see off in style.
?I think I?ll get more of a superfight now than if I had knocked him down in one round. If that had happened, the other champions would have said ?I don?t want any part of Scott Harrison, let?s take an easier option?. So I now think I have more of a chance of the superfights.?
It was impossible to share his optimism.
Friday?s contest against Polo pitted a fighter against a boxer. Having shared the early rounds, Harrison seemed to have turned the fight his way with a familiar, sustained onslaught which wobbled Polo in the fifth.
But the Colombian?s exper ience saw him through and he edged five of the next six rounds as his jabs and straight lefts relentlessly found their target, picking away at the cut which had opened above Harrison?s left eye in the first round. Harrison, always going forward, looked one-dimensional and his opponent more nimble and calculating. Although he landed some solid rights, Polo absorbed them without effect.
Going into the final round Scotland was about to lose her champion. Harrison?s father Peter, his trainer, tried to sound upbeat after the fight but in the corner, before sending his son out for the 12th, he had told him ?you are behind on points, it?s not a thing you want to hear but you have to stop him?.
He could not do so, but did summon reserves of energy in a courageous last defence. As far as the American and Spanish judges were concerned (English judge John Coyle thought Polo won by three rounds) he had done enough.
?At least the fans got their value for money, we were all on the edge of our seats,? said Maloney. ?I thought going into the last, he was a round behind. I thought he won the last round and that saved him the fight. The last round I think showed why he is the champion and why he remains the champion.?
Polo could not have come closer to flying out of the country with a world title belt. Instead, Harrison got away with it ? in more ways than one.
