Harrison on the verge of British glory
Wolverhampton's Dean Harrison is six days away from the biggest fight of his life - finally his shot at Paul McCloskey and the British title.
The light-welterweight confirmed this week that he will take on the champion at the Kingsway Leisure Centre in Widnes next Friday night.
For the challenger, it is the culmination of six months of frustration, ever since he controversially lost a British title eliminator and the vacant English title to boot against Scott Haywood on points in September.
To this day, Harrison maintains he ever lost that fight.
But the 25-year-old got another chance in January at a English title/British title eliminator, against Lenny Daws after Haywood vacated the belt.
Daws pulled out days out before the fight, leaving his opponent in limbo once again.
So the Scotlands prospect joined the card at the Aston Villa Events Centre in February with one simple objective, beat Laszlo Komjathi and you will get your shot.
He duly outpointed his Hungarian opponent to do just that, and now he stands on the verge of realising his childhood dream.
Harrison said: "I can't wait, this is my big chance. In six days time, Wolverhampton could have a British champion. I have dreamed about this since I started boxing at 13 years old, so you don't have to tell me how important this is.
"I know what Paul is about from sparring with him last year, so I am confident going into the fight as well. It may not be on home turf, but at the end of the day it is just going to be me and him in the ring - and nothing else matters.
"There should be a good number of fans coming up to support me, so I don't want to let them down."
Harrison has been training like a demon for the fight , spending his days at Ricky Hatton's gym in Manchester, before travelling back to his home base of Wednesbury gym in the evenings.
The rest of time is spent studying his opponent, so the challenger is confident no stone has been left unturned in his preparations.
He said: "I should be more than ready come the big night. I train hard anyway, my weight is good and I feel great.
"But that doesn't matter to me. What matters if the job at the end of it. Paul is a slippy, awkward southpaw and it won't be easy, but I will be watching videos of him closely and working out a game plan of how to deal with him.
"Then in we go, time for action."
