Harrison vs Jurczyk - Could British Hope Face an Upset?

By Stephen Noble

11.10.01 - Audley Harrison is British boxing's next big thing. (At least if you listen to his promoters). Jurczyk is an average heavyweight from Poznan whose day job is as a car mechanic. On the face of it there's only one way for this one to go too. Some things make me less certain though. Harrison looked short on conditioning in his last fight against Derek McCafferty. This has to have worried Harrison's camp; McCafferty was in the same league as Middleton his first victim. Yet not only did he fail to put him away within the allotted time, he made hard work of it. By the end of the fight Harrison looked to be running badly out of steam.

Jurczyk has also displayed a habit of spoiling the party, in his fight against Yacine Kingbo, the French Heavyweight champion, Jurczyk stretched him inside the first round. Besides that Jurczyk has a much more solid look about him, he's a former Polish amateur champion. Although his record is nine wins against 8 losses, he was unbeaten in his first six fights. He has more than just the traditional puncher's chance, an amateur record of over one hundred and fifty fights, the vast majority of which he won. As an amateur he even stepped into the ring with the current American heavyweight contender, Shannon Briggs.

So Jurczyk will represent a far stiffer test for Harrison than his record would outwardly suggest. Harrison also needs to produce a convincing display against the Pole. His confident predictions of a British fight within a year make him a hostage to fortune. If Harrison tries to press to early then he could get caught, and his million pound dreams could be in tatters. If he fights behind his jab, he'll delight the cognoscenti, but he'll fail to please the passing spectator who wants to see knockouts, and explosive exchanges. He may even be on the verge of his first real test, which adds interest to an apparently routine fight