David Haye vs. Audley Harrison

Two days remaining. . . .

The weigh-in is tomorrow at the Lowry, Salford Quays and I hope to bring you some pictures and my pre-fight musings after seeing the two fighters conditions in flesh.

Now if the fight come Saturday night is anywhere near as good as the trash talking then we are in for real fireworks. Here are two of my favourite quotes from the many months of build up that we have experienced.
"You're going to get destroyed, you're going to get violated in that ring, you'll never be able to set foot in England again."Hayemaker
"When I came out of the Olympics they called me Muhammad Ali, then four years later I'm 'Fraudley'. But after this fight I'll be extraordinary." A-Force

No one in the British press I beleive has ever used the words Audley Harrison and Muhammad Ali in the same sentence, that I am pretty sure of. The same cannot be said for David Haye where during the John Ruiz fight Ian Darke made the point that The Hayemaker is probably the quickest since Ali. And in boxing speed kills.

I took the time last night to re-watch the John Ruiz fight, a fight I attended. It is accepted that throughout the fight that Ruiz was ponderous and plodded slowly forward throughout. He did however show incredible punch resistance. The shots that Haye landed without doubt would have sent many of the heavyweights at the top to the canvas.

Now the self-proclaim A-Force is no John Ruiz that is for sure. He was felled like a giant redwood by Michael Sprott, and granted the boot (or glove) was on the other foot (or hand) in Harrison's last fight but Harrison without doubt is going to have to take a punch in order to through one and he simply isn't capable of this.

Harrison has made a point of Haye being 'chinny'. This is nothing more than an attempt at psychology by the challenger in order to divert attention from his own fragile abilities to take a punch.

Many will poke laughter at Audley Harrison but there is one thing that can be said for him and that is that he is a master of self promotion. Many said that about Napoleon but even the A-Force wins that contest. Without Harrison this fight would be the damp squib that many predict but Audley's stories, fabrications, inner will and that fact that he beleives his own press has hyped the contest up to a level many didn't think capable.

Unfortunately for Harrison it is more hype than expectation when it comes to prospect of victory for the 2000 Sydney Olympic champion.

Looking through Harrison's record it is littered with journeymen and no-marks. It wasn't until his 16th fight that he fought a fighter of any real pedigree in the heavyweight division, Julius Long for the World Federation Heavyweight title. You compare this to Haye at cruiserweight who fought former WBO champion Carl Thompson, who had two victories against Chris Eubank on his resume. Granted, David lost but it was in this fight that I saw what I thought could be a champion.

Without the loss I don't believe Haye would be the boxer we see today. He admits himself that before than he believed that he could trade with anyone. It was a wake-up call for the young man.

Tomasz Bonin was Harrison's next opponent, ranked 8th by the WBC at the time. A TKO was the result for Audley in the ninth. Haye deposed of him in one. A fight that acted as a tune-up for his attempt to gather the WBC & WBA cruiser weight belts from Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck in Paris.

Two fights later it all started to unravel for Harrison as Haye become the undisputed cruiser champion, no matter how much the Olympic champion denies these claims.

Now 3 years later their paths meet having trodden very different tracks along the way. Will Harrison fulfill his 'destiny' or will it just be another empty promise from one the most promising and biggest wastes of talent in British heavyweight boxing? Saturday is not 'The Best of Enemies' but Judgement Day for the A-Force.

UFC 121: Lesnar vs. Velasquez preview

In the early hours of Sunday morning GMT two giants will collide inside the Octagon.

The Honda Center in Anaheim will play host to UFC 121 with the heavyweight title on the line as Brock Lesnar faces Cain Velasquez.

Almost exactly this time last year undisputed champion Lesnar was forced to pull out of his bout with number one contender at the time Shane Carwin due to illness.

Lesnar was confirmed to be suffering from mononucleosis, thus postponing his scheduled fight for UFC 108. Lesnar was diagnosed with a serious case of diverticulitis.

After further diagnosis Lesnar underwent surgery for a perforation in his intestine, which caused him to ultimately contract glandular fever (mononucleosis). It is said that Lesnar lost 100 pounds in weight and that he had been suffering with the condition for around a year.


Dana White, UFC President talking in January about the seriousness of Lesnar's illness and the kind of life the champion leads.

In a year that saw Lesnar capture the UFC heavyweight championship against Randy Couture and avenge his only MMA loss to Frank Mir it begs the question of ‘how much can this animal of a man achieve when 100%?’.

Brock Lesnar was inactive for a year, in that time Cain Velasquez has risen to the top of the division. On the UFC’s first trip to Australia Velsquez devastatingly knocked out Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera to win the knockout of the night award.

Lesnar made his return in July defeating the interim heavy weight champion Shane Carwin at UFC 116. After being dominated in the first round via the heavy hands of Carwin Lesnar’s superior wrestling pedigree came to the fore.

In the second round he gained dominant position on top of Carwin to lock in an arm triangle choke and submit the challenger. Again the man from twin cities Minneapolis-Saint Paul became the undisputed champion, also picking up the submission of the night award.

This weekend Valesquez aims to become the first ever Mexican to win a heavyweight mixed martial arts title. Coming into the fight Cain has out landed his last five opponents by a tally of 481 to 63.

It is fair to say that Valesquez is possibly the most gifted athlete in the heavyweight division today. A two time All-American Division 1 NCAA wrestler with superhuman cardio vascular fitness, along with a purple belt in Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu he goes into the fight undefeated 8-0.

Training out of the American Kickboxing Academy Valesquez has many stable mates who like him fight in the UFC. Brock Lesnar on the other hand trains away from any of his UFC compatriots. In a purpose built facility for himself with handpicked sparring partners who he claims he trusts his life with.



Valesquez has dedicated his life to MMA, starting his career after leaving college. Lesnar on the other hand has gone a very different route.

After a career in professional wrestling with the World Wrestling Federation where he was dubbed ‘the next big thing’ a failed American Football career followed. A career in the mixed martial arts appears to be his calling and he too, like Valesquez, is dedicating his life to becoming the best there has ever been.

It is Brock Lesnar’s belief that there is no one in MMA, fighting under any promotion, who can beat him. He is quoted as saying ‘fighters will come and go but there will only be one Brock Lesnar’. Valesquez on the other hand believes that on Saturday night in Anaheim he shall fulfil his destiny and make history.

University of Central Lancashire-The Media Factory

I believe the Media Factory best represents the University of Central Lancashire. Like the University it is an innovative building both on the inside and out. The Media Factory is a tall rather garish building that stands out in the sky like of Preston, its green, grey and black colouring means that to some it is considered as an eye. In order to gain many different perspectives from one picture I used photo shop to crop the photograph to the appropriate sizes. The first is the photo of the photo in its original resolution.

Firstly I cropped the photo to a 100 x 100 pixel thumbnail. Here I have cropped it to show the UCLan logo.









I then cropped the photo to 400 x 300 pixels. Here I have zoomed in on the brick Kirkham building in the background. In order to prevent the building from looking like it is subsiding due to the fact it at an angle compared to the Media Factory I was required to rotate in 5 degrees clockwise before cropping. Which is more of an eye sore?

This image has been cropped t0 200 x 500 pixel. Is this really a greater eyesore than the red brick building in its shadow? It's fair to say its certainly more aesthetically pleasing.

Lancashire Evening Post Google Map

As part of a workshop task I used Google Maps to create my own map. I took four stories from the Thursday 14th October edition of the Lancashire Evening Post. Two of these were sports stories and two news stories. I then placed the location of where they happened into my map with the link to the story on the LEP website. I also added a related link to go with it.


View Map skills test in a larger map

Championship Football Grounds

As part of a workshop exercise I was required to place the grounds of three teams that Preston will play in the Championship. I choose my home town club Reading FC who play at the Madejski Stadium, the County Ground, home of Nottingham Forest & Elland Road, Leeds United AFC. It makes an interestingly straight line down the middle of England.

View Championship Football Grounds in a larger map

Lancashire County Hall Image Skills

The orignal photo of Lancashire County Hall, Preston.
Thumbnail of Lancashire County Council logo. Resolution: 100 x 100

Photo cropped to 400 x 300 pixels

Photo cropped to 200 x 500 pixels

The prodigal son returns

Tonight Lee Smith will make his much speculated Rugby League return in the highly anticipated Yorkshire derby between Leeds Rhinos & Bradford Bulls.

This Yorkshire derby kicks off the frantic Easter period that captivates every league fan year in year out. Tomorrow, Good Friday, St. Helens clash with league leader Wigan preceded by the only true derby that exists in Super League as East meets West on Humberside at New Craven Park.

The Rhinos welcome the return of their much missed skipper Kevin Sinfield after a four match absence with a leg injury. Kylie Leuluai and Brett Delaney also return following the defeat away to Wigan last Friday.

The Bulls will make a last minute decision on whether or not to include Captain Andy Lynch, who will have to prove to coach Steve McNamara that he has shaken off an ankle injury.

McNamara is also left with the dilemma of whether or not to recall full-back Dave Halley or continue with Brett Kearney who wore the number one shirt for their 19-12 victory over struggling Harlequins.

Before his departure from the club Smith, at the age of just 23 had already racked up 102 appearances with the Headingley club. He completed his move from Premiership Rugby Union side London Wasps on Wednesday and Coach Brian McClennan has wasted no time in including him the squad for this evening’s game.

The England international centre had spent just four months at the High Wycombe based club and following just two senior appearances, against Newcastle Falcons & Scarlets, along with two representative games for the A team he has switch codes again.

The release from his contracted at Wasps comes as a result of personal reasons.
Upon his return to Leeds he said: “It’s a dream come true to get another opportunity to play for the Rhinos and pull of a blue and amber shirt again”.

London Wasps director of rugby Tony Hanks added: “Everyone at Wasps wishes him the very best in the next stage of his career”