Sportinglife, UK
April 8 2004
HARRISON GETS ABELYAN DATE
WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison insists mandatory opponent
William Abelyan will pose the minimum possible risk when the two
fighters eventually meet in Glasgow on May 29.
Harrison will face the United States-based Armenian at Braehead more
than two months after the first scheduled fight was cancelled due to
Abelyan’s injured shoulder.
Abelyan will have been out of the ring for almost a year by the time
he arrives in Glasgow and Harrison insists Abelyan’s record indicates
he will be a less than troublesome opponent.
He said: “Boxing is a risky game and you can get floored with one
punch but I don’t think this will be that tough a fight, I see
Abelyan being stopped later in the fight.
“He’s been mouthing off a lot saying that I fight like a robot but
robots are programmed to win. But I couldn’t care less about him to
be honest.
“Who has he fought anyway? I’ve fought a lot of world champions in
the past but I don’t see anyone on his record.
“He’s not fought anyone that I’ve heard of apart from Guty Espadas
and he’s boxed nearly 30 fights. He got knocked out in one round by
Victor Polo so he doesn’t bother me.
“He hasn’t taken any warm-up fights before meeting me – I think
that’s in case he gets beat.
“I just see him running all night. He says he’s going to stand and
fight and he’ll have to if he wants to win the world title.
“But I think he’s just taking the money, he doesn’t really want to
fight.”
There will be familiarity surrounding Harrison’s latest title defence
as the Scotsman is fighting for the ninth time in row in Glasgow and
the champion admits he wants to continue boxing in front of his home
fans as long as possible.
He said: “I don’t want to fight anywhere else, fighting in Scotland
is fantastic for me and you can’t beat the crowd, they are so
patriotic and it’s packed at Braehead every time I fight there.
“It all depends on the money of course but I wouldn’t want to fight
in America.”
In keeping with Harrison’s attitude, the Scotsman is keeping to his
tried-and-tested training regime which involves packing himself away
to a Fort William training camp to get into top shape.
He said: “It will be the usual preparation. I’ve done about four days
training and now I’m off to Fort William for a month.
“It gets me away from the city and I can concentrate on my training.
There’s mountains to run on every morning and night and it gives me
peace and quiet to train and concentrate on my job. It’s worked in
the past and I’ll stick with it.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
