"Don't forget about Vivian Harris". Good read by Matt Wells...but...

Don't forget about Vivian Harris

http://www.secondsout.com/USA/news.cfm?ccs=229&cs=20357

Interview by Matt Wells: The boxing world is teeming with enigmatic personalities; fighters whose actions, words, and decisions are often unique and sometimes perplexing, and who have had careers to match. Vivian Harris is one of the more intriguing characters in the sport today, and at this point in his career, he is at something of a crossroads.

In his nine years as a pro, Harris has had more than his fair share of ups and downs in the sport. He won a world title belt and lost it in shocking fashion. He has seen some of the best fighters of his era refuse to meet him in the ring, yet he also has dropped bouts against less than stellar opponents. He has shown hints of world-class talent inside the ring, yet outside of it things have often been tumultuous. He was once robbed of a win in Atlantic City, then, years later, ventured into Germany to defeat one of their native sons not once, but twice. Just when you think he's about to hit his stride, he stalls. Just when you think he's gone, he's back.

As a human being, Harris is just as inscrutable. In interviews, he is generous with his time. He will take time out of a busy day and answer as many questions as you throw at him. He is also unequivocal when it comes to his opinions about himself and the other fighters in his division. He gives no credit where he feels none is due. He say what he thinks, and that's that.

Harris headlined an HBO Boxing After Dark show this past July, in which he ripped apart an overmatched Stevie Johnson. To be fair, Johnson was a late replacement for Greek fighter Mike Arnaoutis, who may have proven to be a more impressive challenger. Nonetheless, Harris' clean and convincing performance showed that he still has the stuff to make it in the fight game.

"I think the fight went great," Harris says. "Everything that we prepared [to fight Arnaoutis] worked. The same punches worked and everything. The other fight may have ended earlier, it may have ended later, but it would have ended the same way."

"I wasn't thrown off because they're both southpaws," he continues. "They may not have the same style, but their southpaws, and they're suckers for the same kinds of punches. The right hand to the body, and stuff like that. So it didn't make a difference."

Johnson, the smaller of the two men, made the mistake of trying to stay close to Harris in the early going. With a little less than a minute to go in the first round, Harris rattled off a combination to the head and body that knocked Johnson down to the canvas. Near the end of the round, another body shot had Johnson down again. After another knockdown in the fourth, Johnson came to life somewhat in subsequent rounds, but it was too little, too late. Harris wrapped things up neatly in the seventh with a fourth KD that led to a stoppage shortly thereafter.

Harris is confident that the performance will lead to bigger and better things for him. "It put me back into a position to get back a championship," he says. "I think it was a great opportunity to fight that fight, to get me back into a position I want to be in."

Harris has been a fighter for most of his life. He was born in Guyana, and lived there until his family relocated to New York City when he was 16. His boxing career began in his first home, as his family was heavily involved in the sport there. He piled up amateur accolades in Guyana, then went on to similar success in the States. When he was 19, he turned pro.

A naturally aggressive yet rangy fighter, Harris breezed through his first few years as a paid fighter. As 2000 rolled around and half the world was worried that their computers and microwave ovens were going to blow up, the 16-0 Harris was poised to pad his already impressive resume. But that's when things started to get strange. That's when the first frustrating episodes of his career unfolded.

First off came a clear-cut dismantling at the hands of a more experienced fighter. Such things happen to young prospects. In Harris' case, it was the crafty Ray Oliveira who gave him a boxing lesson, winning by UD through skill and guile. Harris openly admits he did not train properly for that one, and a bad camp led to a bad outing and a learning experience.

Things would get stranger in his next fight, when he took on Ivan Robinson in Atlantic City in August of 2000. In an action-packed tilt, Harris dominated, despite losing points for a knockdown when his glove touched the canvas, and another point deduction that came later when his mouthpiece kept falling out. Even with this setbacks, Harris came away the winner on all three judges' scorecards. But in the end, the fight was ruled a draw, because this was back when New Jersey was using its notorious "majority" scoring system.

This system is nothing but a bad memory now, so for those that had put it out of their minds for good, here's a quick review of how it works: for each round, a "consensus" winner is determined based on which fighter received the 10 points from the majority of judges (so two of the three judges, or three of the three.) This consensus score is the only one that went into the books. Make sense? Well, it shouldn't: that's why it's gone now.

At any rate, because of the way things went, the fight was ruled a 94-94 tie. Despite howls of protest from Harris' camp, the score stood. And then, to cap off a horrible 2000, Harris was stabbed in the stomach by a mugger while he was on his way to Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, NY, on September 29th. Harris was rushed to the hospital and underwent surgery to stop internal bleeding. Thankfully, he was all right.

Harris would bounce back from all this, winning a world title two years later. Still, the memories of these incidents remain, though Harris tries to be philosophical now about what has happened to him in the past. "I try to focus on the positive," he says. "I think everything happens for a reason. You learn from it. What happened with the Robinson fight, that was a lesson that I learned."

Robinson has more to say on that particular issue. "But sometimes things happen, and you don't see it until it happens a second time," he says. "A second time right in the same place that it happened with the Robinson fight. So I'll never take a fight in Atlantic City again. Two things happen to me in Atlantic City, so I'm not going to make it a third time. The first time it happened, it didn't really come to me that something's wrong out there until the second fight."

This second issue that Harris is referring to occurred during his June, 2005 fight with Carlos Maussa. But we should back up a bit before getting to that. First of all, for those that don't remember, Harris lost this fight via seventh round KO. An aging journeyman who had lost a couple of years earlier to the likes of Arturo Morua, Maussa was nonetheless a tricky, sometimes dirty fighter who could take a punch and then some.

Some more context is needed here. This fight took place on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather - Arturo Gatti fight, and Harris, ticked that two other 140 pounders he felt were inferior to him were getting top billing, was aiming to prove that he was the best in the business at that level. So following that logic, strategy did not figure enough into his game plan as it should have.

Harris came out swinging for the fences, nailing Maussa with a number of good shots early but failing to take him out early. Maussa, with his rock-hard chin, took Harris' punches and gave back as good as he got. Harris quickly tired, and Maussa, still in high spirits, pounced in the middle rounds, finally getting Harris down on the canvas in the seventh.

What happened after Harris went down is harder to understand. Maussa, inexplicably, ran over and gave Harris one last shot to the head as he sat near the edge of the ring. Roy Jones Jr. was infamously disqualified in his first fight with Montell Griffin for doing something similar. But referee Earl Brown let this slide, claiming that the ropes had absorbed much of Maussa's illegal punch. The issue was disputed for some time after the fight.

Harris is still sore about this, but still recognizes that he was ultimately responsible for getting himself knocked down in the first place. "That was a bad night," he says. "I wanted to prove to the world that I was the best 140-pounder out there, and I got out there and I just wasn't thinking. I'm not going to fix it. That's what I did."

"But when I got dropped and I was on the floor and I got hit on my head on the floor, that was supposed to be a disqualification," he continues. "And it didn't happen. Nobody could recover from getting hit with a punch on the floor. I'm just thanking God that I'm okay and my head is good and I'm able to fight again."

Despite everything that has happened to him, the bad luck and the bad decisions, Harris is positive when he considers how things are going for him right now. "I think my career is going well," he says. "I've already fought two times this year, and I'll be fighting again by the end of the year. So that's going to be three fights. So things are going great. Before, I was fighting one fight per year. And it was hard, because I have a family to take care of. And fighting once a year, no fighter wants to do that. But now my career is back on track. I'm happy."

"I'm trying to fight the best at 140, and 147," he continues. "So whatever's out there, I'll take. I just heard that I'm the mandatory for the Junior Witter and Demarcus Corley. So I'll definitely like to fight the winner of that, though I'd like to get into the ring before then. That fight wouldn't happen until probably next year."

A belt would be a fine accomplishment for Harris, but it is the big ticket fights against big name opponents that he is truly after. One name that has been connected with his for some time is Ricky Hatton. The two were even scheduled to fight once a couple of years ago, but the plans eventually fell apart and insults were traded back and forth between both camps for a long time after that.

The mention of Hatton's name to Harris sets him off on a lengthy discourse about the nature of the fight game. "The whole world knows I want to fight Hatton," he says. "But these guys don't want to get into dangerous fights. Look at the kinds of guys they're fighting, they're not taking any risks. And fighting me is definitely a big, big risk. I can punch. Most of these guys can't take a punch. We all saw Hatton; he couldn't take a punch when he was fighting my good friend Luis Collazo. Luis Collazo had him hurt. Collazo won that fight."

"We're trying to fight the top guys at 140 and 147," he continues. "We wanted a Hatton fight, and we wanted a Cotto fight. If these guys want to fight at 140 or 147, I'm willing to do it. But these guys don't want to fight me. These guys just want to fight fights that they know that they're going to win. Where the opponents don't have a serious chance. But all I have to do is keep winning, and I'm definitely going to do that. So I don't have anything to worry about. I'm not even calling any fighters out right now."

Harris is not done. "The style of fighter that I am, I'm not a backwards fighter," he says. "I fight both ways; backwards and forwards. The power I've got, I could take Hatton out of there. And they know that. And I throw straight punches, I don't throw roundhouse punches. And that's why the don't find me. And most of the guys they're fighting throw roundhouse punches. And anybody could beat a fighter that throws roundhouse punches. Any fighter that throws straight punches could beat a fighter that throws roundhouse punches. That's why I beat most of these guys, because they all throw roundhouse punches. I'm a technical fighter; I throw straight punches. That's the advantage I have."

Harris certainly has plenty of time left to accomplish everything he wants to in the fight game. It remains to be seen if things pan out for him. But his name cannot be omitted when lists of the top contenders at the junior welterweight/welterweight level are mentioned. Certainly Harris is on a mission to make sure that nobody forgets about him.

I thought that this was a really REALLY good read about Vicious Viv...& while I do think that he is a bit of a panooch...he's got skills & when he's on point...he's fun to watch.

One loss isn't the end of the world...so...I'll got 50/50 & vote:

Yes. Vicious Viv is the bomb. He's gonna blow up...but I'm still not 100% sure that Vicious Viv will perform like a champ against champions.

WHO :dontknow:


ain't no way in hell i'm reading that much about vivain harris

Vivian Harris is garbage. He had his chance and blew it. He's actually had two chances. Ray Oliveira schooled him early in his career. He got his second chance and actually started to do something with it. His win over Diosbelys Hurtado was impressive. But what does he do next? He opens his fuckin mouth and talks shit that everybody is ducking him. Mayweather, Hatton, Cotto, Judah. Everybody. Ignoring the fact that the public don't really know him, if they know him at all. His dumbass than turns down (bitch out) $750,000 to fight Hatton. I don't even remember the lame excuse he used. Before you know it he's fighting Carlos Maussa for $100,000 on the Mayweather-Gatti undercard. "A chance for people to see the real Vivian Harris." He was going to make a "big statement'. I guess his big statement was getting knocked the fuck out. By a fighter who's just recently lost to a journeyman. Yeah, I seen the real Vivian Harris already. And his ass is garbage. I got no problem with fighters that run there mouth, but back it up. Harris ain't one of them. Fuck him.

he should have fought cotto when he had the chance

I don't know...I think that Harris has a lot of talent...but he needs a few more tuners before facing legit talent.

A loss is a loss...but a knockout seems to take a lot more heart out of the man who counted the bulbs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'The Boxer'

he should have fought cotto when he had the chance

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He should of took the $750,000 and fought Hatton

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wacko3205

I don't know...I think that Harris has a lot of talent...but he needs a few more tuners before facing legit talent.

A loss is a loss...but a knockout seems to take a lot more heart out of the man who counted the bulbs.

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CC i agree with ya totally , cudnt of said it better myself

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'The Boxer'

WHO :dontknow:


ain't no way in hell i'm reading that much about vivain harris

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hahahaha was gonna post the self same thing ;D

but im sure its a very nice read ;D

I'm not sold on him yet but I think Harris-Witter is THE FIGHT to be made

He definitely has potential however he disappoints quite a bit. So im stuck between him having potential and being a panooch and i aint convinced he fights like a champ against champs.