Harris - heavyweight walking a tightrope
Crunch time for Harris, pictured with Anthony Joshua
ON the eve of his make-or-break comeback, thunderous punching Coventry heavy Matty Harris has posted three sentences on social meda.
“Mistakes made. Lessons learned. Now I’m back.”
Tomorrow (Friday) on Wasserman’ huge show at Telford International Centre, the 24-year-old looks to dramatically bounce back after losing his unbeaten record in shocking fashion to Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko last July.
Make no mistake, Harris walks a tightrope. Another terrible night and he will be dismissed as yet another KO artist who can dish it out, but cannot take the heat.
His opponent looks understandably low risk. Amine Boucetta, from Belgium, has lost 10 of 18, been stopped twice and, tellingly for a heavyweight, hasn’t prevented anyone from hearing the final bell.
Teenage hope Moses Itauma blasted him out in one round last September. Matty’s backers will be hoping for a similar demolition job.
It’s a new beginning, a new team for Harris. Peter Fury has replaced Leamington’s Edwin Cleary as trainer in a bid to banish the demons of Matty’s last performance.
It was the manner of his defeat to Dovbyshchenko – not simply the defeat itself – that rang such alarm bells.
Harris, with five wins under his belt, four by first round stoppage, dropped the Ukrainian in the second, then appeared to dramatically run out of gas. With Dovbyshchenko hurling round-house blows and nothing coming back, the bout was stopped in the fifth.
The fall-out has been bruising. In a no-holds-barred interview with iFL TV, Kalle Sauerland, head of Wasserman, slated the heavyweight hope’s conditioning.
The reality – seemingly lost on the national media who went into a feeding frenzy after a string of early victories – is Harris turned over as a raw novice who carries phenomenal power. Matty had a scant amateur career.
As far as the boxer’s development is concerned, I personally feel signing with Wasserman plunged the 6ft 8ins fighter into a place he was not prepared for. It gave him slots on televised shows, it gave him national headlines.
The deal was financially rewarding, but denied Harris the chance to learn his craft away from the spotlight, it also fast-tracked his development.
As Cleary told me following the loss: “Matt hits as hard as Deontay Wilder, I mean that. The way he hits, it’s not normal. What he hasn’t got is experience.”
Matty Harris walks a tight-rope, make no mistake.
In heavyweight boxing, one very bad night can be forgiven and forgotten. A second is hard to come back from.