Boxing: Harrison aiming to make full use of home advantage

On paper Scott Harrison is not about to become the 21st current British world champion when he fights Julio Pablo Chacon for the World Boxing Organisation featherweight title at the Braehead Arena, Glasgow tonight. However, odd things can happen when 5,000 fans start to believe.

Harrison has being working in the safe areas of the business since turning professional in 1996. His 17 wins have come in calculating exercises by safety-first matchmakers, but there is little doubt he can fight, beating a dozen fading, but quality fighters at exactly the right time.

Chacon turned professional in Argentina just a few days after Harrison, but he has fought a total of 46 times and has met a succession of quality fighters when they were still young and dangerous. He has been in more so-called 50-50 fights than most of Britain's world champions and has the scars and the ring savvy to prove it.

The champion starts as heavy favourite and, during a week of high-anxiety in Scotland, Chacon has expressed utter disbelief that anybody can even expect Harrison to last beyond four painful rounds. In front of the camera Chacon has appeared relaxed, but away from the glitz he has put in some of the most vicious final training sessions that hardened observers have ever seen.

Harrison, who is two years younger at 25, has gently and awkwardly negotiated his way through a week of hype and has shown no signs that the pressure or Chacon's skills have started to cause him any inner problems. This Harrison is not a media fighter and that is a relief in 2002.

"The hype doesn't bother me. It can be a buzz. I'm fighting for the world title and this is what it's all about," he said.

"I realise that the fight has to be sold and that people have to see me. I won't feel any tension before the fight. I'll go for a walk on Saturday morning, but that will be all. I don't go too deep into it or think about it too much. I don't sit in a dark room, saying, 'I don't want to be doing this'. I enjoy boxing, I'm getting paid good money and I'm fighting for the world title."

It is possible during the last few dragging days before an important fight for incidents to occur that cause concern and can directly effect the outcome. In Las Vegas last November Hasim Rahman was up all night wandering the casino floor signing autographs and posing for pictures less than 48 hours before Lennox Lewis sent him to dreamland. In Glasgow there are no outward indications, but somebody close to the Chacon camp is supposed to have let it slip that their fighter is not happy with the prospect of a wild and partisan Glaswegian crowd.

"There is no problem with the crowd," insisted Chacon's nervous manager Osvaldo Rivero. "Julio won the title in front of more fans in Hungary. He is an experienced fighter and many times he has fought against the fans outside the ring and his opponent in the ring." Sure, but not 5,000 Scottish fans cheering on the first boxer in 25 years from north of the border with a legitimate claim to have his name placed next to the likes of Jim Watt and Ken Buchanan.

This is, make no mistake, one of the very best world title fights in a British ring for many years and back in 1995 there was a similar pairing at the London Arena. On that night of intense drama, Nigel Benn defied all the form books and in doing so re-wrote the manual on guts and determination in boxing to stop the talented American Gerald McClellan. There is no doubt that the capacity crowd of 12,000 helped Benn through a savage fight.

It could be the same tonight when the first bell sounds – not that many will hear it because of the roar – and Harrison steps from the safety zone of protected fights and moves cautiously across the ring to begin his pursuit of Chacon. He will not have to look very far and that, combined with the crowd, will help him in a fight that will surely be one of the best this year. Chacon against Harrison promises to be the type of fight that enters boxing folklore.