Boxing: Great Scott in the making as another Harrison hits title trail

Scotland's latest fighting Braveheart can prove to be the real deal

The boy Harrison is in action again next Saturday, and fighting for a world title, too. But hang on, we're not talking Audley here. This one is Scott. "The real Harrison," according to his manager, Frank Maloney, a brilliant young featherweight who has not made quite such heavy going of his rising career as his better-known namesake.

They say the best Saturday- night punch-ups in Glasgow take place outside the pubs rather than in the ring, and when big Audley chose Kelvin Hall for his third paid outing a year ago, despatching a podgy nightclub bouncer from Poland in two rounds, only a few hundred forsook the beer for the boxing.

Rather more will be in attendance at the Braehead Arena, where home-bred Harrison can expect more passionate support than the saucy Sassenach who unwisely elected to disport himself in tartan trunks.

When Scott Harrison, in only his 20th contest, challenges the vastly more experienced Julio Pablo Chacon for the Argentinian's World Boxing Organisation (WBO) featherweight title, the one certainty is that it will be a fight and not a formality.

This is for the belt that Naseem Hamed held for five years, but which Chacon picked up when Hamed's conqueror, Marco Antonio Barrera, decided to relinquish. Chacon, 27, who looked undistinguished when last seen in London defending this title against Victor Polo, has won all but two of his 46 fights, his most impressive victory coming when he won the vacant championship 15 months ago in the Budapest backyard of the formidable Istvan Kovacs, whom Hamed had declined to met.

Maloney proclaims British champion Harrison as the most redoubtable fighting man to come out of Scotland since old Braveheart himself, William Wallace. "Never mind Audley," he says. "Here's a Harrison who has done it the hard way. He is as tough as old boots, a quality fighter who is rugged and strong. It will take a very good fighter to beat him." Could Chacon be that man? There is nothing flashy about him. Like his challenger Harrison, he throws good combinations and likes to move forward aggressively. It is a fascinating match, and one which Harrison relishes.

He says: "I don't think Chacon is that great. True, he's a world champion and I respect him for that, but there are some other good champions in the division. But I expect the fight of my life and I'm ready for it."

It also happens that Harrison is one of boxing's dad's lads. His 53-year-old father, Peter, a renowned amateur who fought as a pro for the Scottish lightweight title, is his trainer, and will be in his corner. Shades of Darkie Smith, whose illegal ring invasion when son Stephen was getting battered by Ricky Hatton recently may cost him his licence? "No chance," says Scott. "As soon as that bell goes he's no longer my dad, he's Peter Harrison, my trainer. Even in the gym it's all about business, not a father-son relationship.

"I couldn't believe it when I saw Darkie Smith dive in like that... It was madness, unbelievable. Obviously his emotions got the better of him but there's no doubt in my mind that my dad would not react in that way. He's far too professional." His promoter, Frank Warren, promises eventual exposure in the United States if Harrison wins. "Scottish boxing is booming again, and we want to build a fan base, as we have in London and Manchester with Hatton and in Wales with Joe Calzaghe.

"There is a market there crying out for good fighters and Scott is the man to carry the banner." Since the retirement of Jim Watt the last two decades have been barren ones for Scottish boxing. Now the irony is that after waiting so long without a prospect in sight, it is the old London bus syndrome of two coming along together.

For Scotland now has another potential world champion in the 23-year-old super- featherweight Alex Arthur, also trained by Harrison's father, who meets another undefeated youngster, Willie Limond, for the vacant British title on the same bill. Arthur is the Boxing Writers' Club's current Best Young Boxer of the Year, succeeding Harrison, who won the award last year.

Arthur, from Edinburgh, won a Commonwealth Games gold medal four years ago and has been signed by Warren's Sports Network after being pursued by some of the world's top managers. Both follow a Caledonian tradition which goes back to the legendary Benny Lynch, via Jackie Paterson, Walter McGowan, Ken Buchanan and Watt.

Some believe that Arthur, whose damaging body punches left his opponent from Belarus wincing with fractured ribs in the opening round of his last bout, will emerge as the better prospect of the two. Warren considers them equally talented, though different in style.

Harrison, beaten only once (on a cut-eye stoppage) in 19 contests, has overcome some tough old campaigners and believes he will confound the suspicion that this title test may have come too early. It is certainly a higher risk than his namesake would contemplate at this stage of his career.

The other Harrison, fresh from making short work of the hapless American Wade Lewis, will have his eighth bout on 12 November, and it is likely to be against another equally inept import, or "dead body" as Sir Henry Cooper puts it, though the Olympic champion remains resolutely unmoved by the criticism.

"He is simply not learning the business properly," claims Cooper. "He must stop meeting these mugs. It looks to me as if he has a stamina problem, puffing and panting like a good 'un and standing back to catch his breath after throwing clusters of punches.

"Maybe that's why he doesn't want to move up from six-rounders. And with a million quid in the bank, where is the incentive?" Not the sort of questions that occupy "Braveheart" Harrison as he prepares to revive Glasgow's Saturday-night fervour.