Boxing: Harrison defiant after mismatch win in Vegas sideshow

At Caesars in Las Vegas there is a nightclub called Cleopatra's Barge, which sits in a small pool that represents the Nile. Here in New Jersey the disco boat would have been fine had it floated anywhere near Audley Harrison's changing room, because there was a lot of denial in there.

On Saturday night a short left sent a short heavyweight called Shawn Robinson to the canvas after 2 min 09sec of round one of a fight that had the crowd of 12,238 laughing inside the Boardwalk Hall because of the difference in size. Even Robinson chuckled before he fell unconscious.

Less than an hour after Robinson was hauled away from the canvas, Arturo Gatti finally used his head for tactics, and not as a punch bag, to win his rematch with Micky Ward in a fight that included a third round that will enter boxing folklore for its sheer, brutal audacity. The Ward-Gatti fight was introduced by Michael Buffer, the ring announcer, as being for the Undisputed Never Surrender Blood and Guts championship of the world. It most certainly was.

Harrison's American debut was only ever going to be a small sideshow attraction but if getting 31 words in the local paper, being called a Canadian, not being shown live in the United States and knocking out a man who was six inches shorter and 53 pounds lighter can be called a success, then this was a success.

It has been too easy to be critical of Harrison during his eight fights that have seen his viewing figures plummet from seven million to just over two million and paid attendance at his shows drop from over 7,000 to less than 1,000.

On Saturday night the punters and purists were denied any chance of forming an opinion because Robinson, as predicted, was so flawed that his survival looked uncertain from the moment he sauntered to the middle of the ring and stared up comically at Harrison just like Charlie Chaplin did all those years ago in The Champ. Some would say that his chances ended three weeks ago when he accepted the fight.

"Last year he fought British champion Danny Williams and lost in two rounds and nobody said he was a bum then, so he can't suddenly become a bum now," claimed Harrison.

Well, that is not strictly true because Robinson was the fall guy when he met Williams and, in his three fights since, none of which he has managed to win, he has firmly established the credentials to be called a bum.

Harrison did the right thing in the ring but there was no need to try and justify Robinson's small role in his rise by claiming that the Missouri builder was anything other than what he really is and that is a short, hopeless nice guy with a chin that would reliably crumble when poked.

There is no direct acronym for Robinson's breed but, generally in the world of boxing, bum suffices. It was the ringside analyst George Foreman who came to Harrison's rescue when he left his seat at the end of the Gatti fight and said: "He's going to be the future of the heavyweight division and right now he stands alone as the best prospect in heavyweight boxing." Big George, who two weeks ago in Harrods dismissed Harrison, could be right in a bizarre way.

Harrison has a package in place with the BBC, his trainers and his advisers who will restrict the amount of risks that he takes during the next two or three years, and by the end of 2004 he could find himself directly in line for one of boxing's more meaningful belts purely by a process of natural elimination.

However, there is a problem and it is one that the BBC's touring executives will simply not accept. It is Harrison's apparent lack of support from the British public. What other explanation is there for the figures? "The fans will come back when he is in meaningful fights," claimed the BBC's head of boxing, Mike Lewis.

"I don't want everybody to love me," said Harrison late on Saturday night. "I'm glad my enemies come out and attack me because that way I know who to invite for tea."

But the harsh truth is that the fans should never have gone away. "The ship will be sailing off into the sunset because it is all going to plan," Harrison concluded. Perhaps he means the barge.