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AUDLEY HARRISON HAS retired from boxing, days after his latest embarrassing first-round knockout.
Harrison’s final attempt at a comeback stalled on Saturday night after a paltry 70 seconds in the ring with America’s Deontay Wilder.
Now the 41-year-old, who won Olympic gold for Great Britain in Sydney, is hanging up his gloves.
“There are only so many times you can fall before it becomes foolhardy to continue,” he wrote in a statement on his official website today.
“I’ve fallen a lot, but winning the heavyweight title was a destination I really wanted to get to. Coming back from adversity has been synonymous with my life.
“I’ve done well to turn my life around, but sadly my dream to be a legitimate world champion will be unrealised.
I believed if I was mentally and physically right, I could figure these young guns out. Saturday was my final chance to prove it. The thing that pulled me up was pride, so I wanted a chance to continue and go out on my shield. It was not to be.
In recent years Harrison’s finest moment came when he knocked out Michael Sprott to win the EBU European Heavyweight title in April 2010.
But his dream of becoming a world champion was shattered in a dismal three rounds against David Haye later that year, a defeat which saw him slammed as “Fraudley” by the media.
In October 2012 he was knocked out by David Price in the first round of their British and Commonwealth Heavyweight title fight.
And though he showed that he’s still able to hold his own when winning a second heavyweight ‘Prizefighter’ title in March, Saturday’s defeat to Wilder marked the end of the line for the Londoner.
Read Audley Harrison’s statement in full here >
