It is exactly 30 years since I had one of the most poignant interviews of my sportswriting career when I went to Oxford to meet the late, great Bobby Moore.

Alas, he wasn't receiving an honorary doctorate from the University – though he surely deserved one as much as he does a posthumous knighthood.

Instead I knocked on the door marked "Manager" outside an old Portakabin in the car park of Oxford City FC, then a struggling club of part-timers in the bowels of something called the Isthmian League. Moore was sitting behind a cluttered desk.

"Bloody hell, Bob," I said as we shook hands. "What on earth is the former England captain doing in a place like this?"

He shrugged and smiled wryly. "Well, no one else will give me a job."

It is to the eternal shame of football – and the Football Association – that nothing more worthy was ever forthcoming for the only Englishman ever to have held aloft the World Cup. "Mooro", as was his old adversary Pelé, should have been one of the game's outstanding global ambassadors.

How the mighty have fallen, I thought to myself as I drove back to London, a phrase which sprang back into the consciousness recently with the news that the one-time Olympic super-heavyweight champion Audley Harrison is making yet another comeback.

Though he seems never to have been away.


Last seen being booed from the ring in Manchester 14 months ago after throwing only a single token puny punch before being left wild-eyed and legless by David Haye in only seven embarrassing minutes for the World Boxing Association heavyweight championship, dear old 'Fraudley' refuses to put us out of our misery.

I wonder when he stood on that rostrum 12-years-ago in Sydney, lovingly caressing the gold medal draped around his neck  as Britain's first Olympic boxing champion in 28 years, whether he ever envisaged ending his fighting days not at illustrious citadels of sock Caesars Palace, Madison Square Garden or Wembley, but the Brentwood Leisure Centre in Essex.

For that's where he'll be on Saturday April 14, with the man in the opposite corner named Ali.

But Ali's no Muhammad. He's one Ali Adams, an Iraqi-born novice heavyweight who has won 13 of his 17 fights and apparently is being groomed for better things by local promoter Steve Goodwin, who says he sees the now 40-year-old Harrison strictly as an opponent.


Mention of the word "strictly" reminds us of Audley's last public offering, as a contender in the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing where he showed better, rather niftier footwork in the ballroom than he ever did in the professional prize ring, where he so frequently forgot it takes two to tango.

I have always found Harrison amiable and engaging and not one to bear grudges despite the criticism that he has received from myself and others.

When I saw him win his Olympic title he displayed a boxing brain which suggested he could go on to join luminaries such as Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Leon Spinks, Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko who also struck gold which they converted into the ultimate accolade of the world heavyweight champion.

But once the BBC, in their wisdom, provided him with a £1 million windfall Audley decided to take what he thought was the easy way up. It soon became apparent that the Londoner who called himself the A-Force was not A-list.

The truth was, that while Audley loved the fight game, he had no great love for fighting


The humiliatingly brief encounter with the Hayemaker was by no means the first time he had been forced to return, unlamented,  to his adopted home in California a busted flush, shorn of his bombast and bravado, knowing he had to rediscover not only his self belief, but find himself again.

He seems to have had more resurrections than Lazarus but he still refuses to admit the party's over.

"I have never been more disappointed in myself than I was that night against Haye," he says. "Anyone can lose but I didn't lose with dignity so I was never going to retire on that. I know I still have a future.

"There was a lot pride to be swallowed, a lot of soul searching and looking into myself after all the things that were said about me – if only people knew what I am really about.  I've dug deep into that well and now you will see my true character.

"There's a story to be told, and I will tell it one day, about all the problems that I have had, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. But I am never going to go back to that bad place again."

Barry McGuigan is among those who have questioned Harrison's heart and desire. Harrison says this hurts more than anything his 32 opponents ever threw at him. "As an ex-fighter Barry should know better. I have never lacked bottle.


"I might have thick skin but I am a human being like everyone else and I want the fans to be behind me like they were in the Olympics.  I just want to be able to go out there, do my job and for people to appreciate I am an entertainer.  People say I was arrogant, but I like to say self-assured. I think I've realised what it's about and I don't take things so personally.

"I am fortunate that I have done quite well financially out of boxing so I am not fighting just for the pay cheque.  There is an air of desperation about me now. The bottom line is that my goal is still to become a world champion and then unify the title.

"I know I'm in the valley looking up at the mountain but I'm ready to climb again. I refuse to believe it is too late."

The boxing ring is strewn with shattered reputations and ruined aspirations and while Audley is no Bobby Moore in terms of stature and achievement it does seem equally poignant that for him now the only way is Essex.


Well Audley, you are entitled to dream. But as you take your partner for what surely must be your last waltz, I think I'll sit this one out.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title from Atlanta to Zaire.