Scott Harrison: A Look at the Former WBO Featherweight Boxing Champion

By Donald C. Stewart

September 2011 won’t necessarily go down in boxing history any more than any other month in any other year. For Scottish fight fans it is the month and the year in which a former world champion walked from one prison in Spain and applied for and we all believed for a period of time that he was granted his boxing license. Top Promoter Alex Morrison supported his application heavily. He wasn’t granted his license.

Former WBO Featherweight champion Scott Harrison 25-2-2, 14 KO’s, got out of the notorious high security Botafuego Prison in Spain and within hours was punching pads with his dad and former trainer, Peter before vowing to become World Champion again. He looked tanned, fit and toned and he was ready to do what he has always done in providing for his family – fighting in a ring.

Harrison is a typical working class Scot. Brought up on a notorious drug addled housing estate – the Gorbals in Glasgow – he escaped the initial appeal of the criminal gangs that roamed the streets by boxing. In Scotland they say there are three ways of getting out of poverty – luck, boxing or soccer.

For every Scottish boxer in every era they hear the name of our most famous sons – Benny Lynch. Lynch became the World Champion and along the way fought his way in and through the hearts of the adoring Scottish public. We held him aloft and he gave us fights that deserved such a pedestal. Unfortunately as high as he rose the demon drink brought him down as it destroyed his career, destroyed his legacy and took his life. We hear this story as children and with reverence we listen, with reverence we understand but for many putting the lessons of Lynch’s life into practice are just beyond us.

Like Benny Lynch, Scot Harrison boxed his way out of poverty and after winning a bronze at the European Amateur Championships in 1996, he was on the radar. That year he turned pro and won his first fight by way of knockout.

People paid attention – how could you fail not to – and Harrison took 6 years as a pro to get to the top. In 2002 he won the WBO Featherweight title by unanimous decision against Julio Pablo Chacon in Glasgow. He had already won the British and Commonwealth belts along the way.

The way that he lost his title was sore. A split decision at home is a hard one for anyone to take and in July 2003 Manuel Medina came to Glasgow and took away his belt. In November Medina returned, in a rematch, to defend it against Scott and Scott duly won by TKO in the 11th. The champion had his revenge.

Harrison’s life and legacy was on the up and his lifestyle was one of a champion with money. Unfortunately, it is believed, that the boy from the Gorbals found that his life was catching up with him. He dabbled in drugs, his alcohol intake rapidly increased and those of us who have escaped poverty know that at some time we are faced with the emotional challenge of disassociating from our past. Harrison couldn’t escape.

Unfortunately his personal life was being mirrored by his career. The legendary Frank Warren had set up, in 2006 a defense in Belfast that was to be televised. Harrison pulled out the fight. Warren was furious and made his views known to the media.

Eventually he went into the Priory Clinic to be treated for his problems. Much pilloried by the media, The Priory Clinic is known as THE place for celebrity meltdowns. Celebs will enter the Priory when their careers are on the wane and get enough sympathy that their careers will suddenly take off because people realize it was not all their fault… The reality is that, as a medical institution, the Priory has strict regulation and if you are not in agony, you don’t get in. Harrison was in agony. Unfortunately after a few days he checked himself out.

There were reports of incidents in night clubs. Arrests followed and his house in Spain was not his sanctuary as his behavior had spoiled from the confines of the UK into the one place his money had bought to help him escape.

Eventually the WBO lost patience and stripped him of his title. Harrison tried again and again to get back into the ring but he couldn’t make the weight against Nicky Cook and before he could get it on with Alex Arthur he was sent to prison.

Harrison has announced that he is shocked by the British Board of Boxing Control’s decision to refuse to grant his license. They have claimed that he has not submitted all of the relevant paperwork. They have as yet to respond to Harrison’s claims that he did but if it is merely a matter of paperwork then it is only a matter of time before we see Scott back in the ring. The question we fear most is shall his legacy be one like Benny Lynch or shall he give us another legacy and a better story to tell our kids?