BOXING WBA HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT:WHEN DAVID Haye and Audley Harrison flexed their cliches in the ritual head-to-head confrontation ahead of their world title fight in Manchester on Saturday night, the champion established an early lead in the chuckle stakes.

“All great achievements require time,” the 39-year-old Harrison repeated for the cameras for possibly the 100th time in recent weeks, quoting the venerated American writer and poet Maya Angelou. “My builder said that when he was putting up my conservatory,” snapped back the 30-year-old Haye, scornful of the challenger’s longevity and literary pretensions in one put-down.

There followed the customary exchange of pleasantries between old friends, none of them convincing to those who knew their history. They once were warrior England team-mates as amateurs, most memorably at the World Championships in Texas in 1997, when neither performed at his best, due in part to their tag-team exploration of Houston’s best night spots.

Harrison talked about his “moral journey” and going back to “my true essence”, reiterating, “it’s not even that personal”, and sounding more like a missionary monk than an 18st pugilist.

Haye came from a different angle. “He’s cracked mentally,” he said. “I just hope he turns up on the night,” he added, echoing the sentiments of all present.

Harrison describes this leg of his journey as “mission complete”. So, regardless of the result, will he quit boxing after Saturday night? “There will be time for reflection,” he said. On that, at least, they were probably agreed.

As a pre-fight verbal work-out, it was sub-Ali-Liston for drama, not as loud as Hatton-Mayweather, funnier than Khan-Malignaggi and longer than anything Manny Pacquiao has probably ever said in public.

Harrison: “No British Olympic champion has gone on and won a world title. This will be the greatest boxing comeback worldwide, and the greatest sporting comeback in Britain.”

Haye observed: “I was anticipating fireworks. He’s lost his marbles, he truly has.”

Could there, we wondered, be an “Oliver McCall moment” when Harrison has a meltdown in the ring like the American did in his rematch with Lennox Lewis? “Looking into his eyes,” Haye said, “he was staring. I thought, come on Audley, where’s the cool, calm collected character you try to portray?”

But could he not then come up with something extraordinary on the night – like McCall did in his first fight against Lewis, when he knocked him out with, well, a haymaker? “I don’t know,” admitted The Hayemaker. “Oliver McCall was one of those crazy guys. There were two different McCalls who turned up against Lennox. So, you’ve got to watch yourself, because they can sling a crazy punch.”

Reflecting on how the BBC and Frank Warren and the Americans and maybe quite a few others allegedly did him down over the years, Harrison said: “No complaints. I was able to grow as a man. I was able to put my ego in check and I was able to go on a different pathway. So, even though I think it was wrong what happened to me, I think it was the universe using them to make me a better person.”

Was none of it his fault? “No, no, no. The route I chose was the right route. England wasn’t ready for it.”

The challenger might have been making less sense, but he was getting more smiles. He has that effect on people. Except opponents. They just want to rip his head off, none more so than Haye.

“The manner in which he’ll get beaten,” Haye said, “in 3D, the third dimension, there will be nowhere to hide. His career will be completely over. It will be one of the highest profile beatings witnessed in a boxing arena.”

Guardian Service

KO %

30

6ft 3ins

78 ins

24

23

1

25

88%