The A-Force is With You…..Really?

Call me crazy “you’re crazy” glad we got that out of the way, but am I wrong in thinking winning a title in boxing is the first rung on the ladder to more titles?. In the past a loss on the record was difficult to come back from just ask Prince Naseem but more recently it seems it is all not bad losing that sacred 0.

Well within the last 48 hours we have seen the news of James Degale returns to training and is ready to fight on following his lose to George Groves. This is great news for Degale and for British boxing as a collective. James Degale as I’m sure you all remember lost his British title to Bitter domestic rival and former stable mate St George Groves back in May, Groves now proudly holds the British and Commonwealth Super Middleweight titles but it has been announced that Degale’s return will be for the EBU Super Middleweight title.

What I am struggling to get my head around is how does that work?, Degale failed in his bid to add the Commonwealth title to his British strap but he lands a shot at the European title before George Groves even gets a look in. this is not Degale’s fault of course it is just another genius piece of work by Frank Warren. Once again do records not mean as much as we think? I will never pretend to understand boxing politics but it seems if you’re not first you’re last and there are no prizes for 2^nd place.

Maybe Groves’ team have something else planned or they were simply too slow out of the blocks, I think it is wrong though. All due respect for Warren getting this fight for Degale, this is why he is amongst the top elite when it comes to promoters but the EBU board should maybe have a good look at themselves. I really hope James is victorious and this could be a short cut to the Groves rematch as Degale will once again have something George Groves wants.

In other news Audley Harrison is back on the scene and looking for takers on twitter, his most recent saying he wants the winner of Derek Chisora and Tyson Fury. One fan had put the question to A-force about facing the International Heavyweight Prizefighter champion Mike Perez. I think Perez would be a great fight Harrison but feel the 25 year old (16-0 12KO) Cuban would be a big risk for the 39 year old Harrison.

Perez is a virtually an unknown fighter on these shores and a loss for Harrison would affectively retire him.
Harrison I think feels this might be his one last opportunity to get his hands on a title of any kind and tweeted “British title or Mike Perez with no titles”. Audley Harrison’s last outing was far from spectacular in his 3^rd round TKO at the hands of David Haye. Neither fighter threw a punch for the first two rounds then Haye stopped Harrison in the 3^rd enough said, that was the full fight review right there.

So once again I ask does a loss mean nothing anymore? Granted Harrison is a former EBU champion just as Degale is a former British champion, the key word here is ‘Former’. I don’t think Harrison should not be hand picking who he fights next.

Maybe it is just the fact that this could well be Harrison’s last chance at a title but as much as he is saying I want the winner of Chisora/Fury and I won’t fight Perez because he has no title, what about the winner then?. What does Harrison have that would interest Chisora if he won? Chisora was only weeks away from a world title fight I doubt that he would entertain the Harrison fight if either of the Klitschko‘s come knocking. If Tyson Fury won he may well be interested but with David Price v John McDermott’s British title eliminator coming up I’m sure they would have a word or two to say about it.

I know I am sounding unfair on Audley Harrison’s part but I’m just looking at it from a different angle, we have top British Heavyweights battling it out to earn their title shots by winning their fights not using their rank as leverage. I wish Audley the best of luck with whom ever he fights. He has a great love/hate relationship with the fans and it's never boring with A-force around, he's been a good ambassador for British Heavyweights. Harrison has had some quality fights and the point i'm trying to make is after aloss you should have to prove yourslf before another title shot unless it is a rematch (then it's quids in).

I would like to see him fight David Price or indeed Mike Perez to really give him one more test. David Price needs a test also but Audley already turned down a fight with Price too.