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Scott Harrison
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Scott Harrison (23-2-1) demolished Samuel Kebede (24-1) within 59 farcical seconds of round one to retain his WBO Featherweight Title.
To be perfectly honest in the limited time I have been reporting on fights and my many years watching boxing live or avidly on TV, this fight is a first where I am at a loss for words to give you readers at doghouseboxing.com the necessary information to enable you to formulate a picture of what happened at the famous Braehead Arena. I am one of the fortunate ones, I did not pay to see this fight but surely the ever passionate and vocal Scottish Boxing fans deserved more than a one round blow out billed as a World Title Fight.
In the very first exchange Harrison knocked Kebede to the canvas with an innocuous looking punch. After the Referee Micky Vann had given the Ethiopian an eight count he seemed somewhat reluctant the fight to continue. Naturally as any World Champion would Harrison jumped on Kebede to finish the job off. Kebede tried his best to swing back to stem Harrison's onslaught but again a harmless looking punch knocked Kebede to the canvas. Kebede rose but any fan could see he was very unsteady on his feet and in my opinion Micky Vann RIGHTLY called a stop to perhaps Scott Harrison's easiest victory of his entire career. As already stated the entire action from start to finish took 59 seconds and most of that was taken up by the first knock down.
Before anyone accuses me of wrong doing, this was not Scott Harrison's fault, in addition it was not the fault of his promoter Frank Warren at Sportsnetwork. All Warren can do is ensure his fighter fulfils his obligations as the WBO World Featherweight Champion that is exactly what the Sportsnetwork Promoter did, by delivering a fighter who the WBO ranked as their NO5 featherweight. In addition no one can accuse Frank Maloney of lightly matching his fighter Harrison who he has looked after during his professional career. Indeed there has been a number of occasions where I have thought Harrison has been matched a little too toughly especially in his earlier fights
So who is to blame?? … the argument will roll on. All I know is the respective Governing Bodies have to grip boxing by the scruff of the neck and demand top quality fights, the only way they will achieve this is in my opinion ensuring when they rank an opponent after and only after they have followed some strict and coherent guidelines. Samuel Kebedes last 8 opponents could hardly qualify him to fight for a world title!!! … Looking at one independent ranking system only one was ranked in the top 150, the next highest ranked opponent was 397th, a couple in the 400's and 3 in the 700's.
So what next for Harrison?? With his last 3 defences lasting no longer than 8 rounds in total, it is clear the World Class Featherweight needs a stern test. There is much talk of a fight with In Jin Chi the WBC Champion, for me a clash with Britain's Michael Brodie or Nicky Cook would fill any arena in Scotland and wet the appetite of the Scottish fans who would love to see their favourite boxer "get one over" their English rivals.
Results from the Undercard were as follows
Scott Harrison beat Samuel Kebede TKO 1
(WBO Featherweight Title)
Martin Watson beat Mark Winters Pts 10
(Celtic Lightweight Title)
Lawrence Murphy beat Michael Monaghan Pts 6
(Middleweight)
Tommy Cannon beat Ojay Abrahams Pts 4
(Super Middleweight)
Colin Bain beat Peter Buckley Pts 4
(Super Featherweight).
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© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2004
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By Spud Woollatt (October 30, 2004) 
