FOLLOWING the troubled career of Scott Harrison might reasonably be compared to watching regular reruns of Groundhog Day, the American comedy starring Bill Murray as an egocentric weatherman caught in a time loop, repeating the same day again and again.
The principal difference being that while Murray played it for laughs, Harrison's life has been blighted by tragedy – regrettably most of it self-inflicted.
Yesterday's Spanish court judgment that has sentenced Harrison to a four-year jail term after he was found guilty of assault charges had an all-too familiar ring to it but this time it would seem that the end of the former world champion's career is nigh.
Harrison intends to appeal even though it would appear the Spanish authorities are out to get him, judging by the severity of the sentence but while Harrison's future as a boxer is once more hanging in the balance, his manager and promoter, Alex Morrison, demonstrated his loyalty when he pledged to stand by the troubled fighter.
Harrison is due to headline a bill at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall on December 1, against Greenock's John Simpson, and Morrison stressed he fully intends to press ahead with the promotion.
Morrison, who hopes the appeals process will turn out to be lengthy and ultimately successful, stressed: "The show is going ahead as planned. When I spoke with Scott he told me he was just back from the gym and that he felt fine and was working hard, so it's may be a case of so far so good but managing Scott has been very interesting. I have tried my best for him and, hopefully any appeal will be successful."
Morrison claimed he wasn't even aware a judgment was imminent following Harrison's court appearance. He added: "I hadn't heard a thing about it until now and I don't know the full facts. But nothing surprises me with Scott. I suppose it's always a case of expect the worst.
"His life is a mess and I feel sorry for him if he faces going back to prison, because that would mean his career is over. Scott had been planning to go to Spain to train but I cautioned him against that and I'm glad he heeded my warning."
For most of the past seven years Harrison's life has assumed train-crash pro-portions that has resulted in him featuring more often on the news pages than in the sports sections of the national press. So, it seems reasonable to assume that this latest development will not have come as a much of a surprise to Harrison watchers.
Yet, it was all so very dif-ferent back in October 2002 when Harrison defeated the World Boxing Organisation featherweight champion, Julio Pablo Chacon of Argentina. The Scot duly embarked on a three-year reign as champion, interrupted only briefly by Manuel Medina, in July 2003.
Harrison regained the crown four months later when he stopped Medina in a rematch before eventually going on to win his 11th and final world title bout in November 2005, outpointing Australian Nedal Hussein. He had by then become the most successful Scottish boxer of all time, statistically at least, before his life spiralled out of control due to human frailties.
Harrison embarked on a remarkable comeback in June, due in the main to Morrison's benevolence, when he returned to the ring following an absence of more than six-and-a-half years to defeat Gyorgy Mizsei and Joe Efidh, in turn but there is a sense of dread that this time the boxing gods are ready to call time on a man who deserves sympathy but who will very probably receive very little understanding or compassion.
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