Harrison and hopes hit the deck

Boxing/ European heavyweight title fight: The fans who jeered Audley Harrison out of the ring after his shattering three-round defeat against Michael Sprott had long since melted into the night when the big man slowly walked through the Wembley Arena's underground car park to step into a waiting ambulance, accompanied only by his wife Raychel.

"Yes, I'm all right," he told the handful of security staff and other stragglers who asked about his wellbeing, but his body language told another story.

Harrison's oft-repeated mantra that he will one day become world heavyweight champion was not heard now. Earlier, still concussed from the Sprott left hook that had left him unconscious on the canvas in front of an unforgiving audience, Harrison had said in a TV interview he was disappointed the referee had not let the fight go on. The truth is his scrambled senses had still not grasped he had been on the receiving end of a chilling knock-out punch.

Harrison was driven to hospital where he underwent tests which proved there was no lasting physical damage. But the psychological scars left by this third defeat in his past five contests will be harder to assess. The harsh reality confronting Harrison (35) after this latest humiliation, at the same venue where his professional career began amid so much self-aggrandising hyperbole six years ago, is the dream might be over.

Sprott (32) had shown all his experience to recover from a flash first-round knockdown when Harrison connected with a shot to the head.

Sprott, the European Union champion, had a plan to rough Harrison up at every opportunity and keep the action at close range where his team of trainers reckoned he was the superior man, and he implemented it perfectly.

"That was the best punch that I have ever thrown," the Reading man said. "Audley might want a rematch, but what do I want with Audley Harrison? As he might have said, 'I don't need him now'.

Guardian Service