Fuming Warren’s parting shot for Harrison

A FURIOUS Frank Warren is ready to curtail his turbulent five-year relationship with Scott Harrison following the troubled star’s withdrawal from his world title fight tomorrow night.

The promoter claims he first heard of Harrison’s decision not to go through with his WBO featherweight title defence against Nicky Cook via a statement his father issued yesterday.

In it, Harrison claimed weight-making issues were behind his late decision to pull out and automatically relinquish the title he held over two reigns since his March 2002 win over Juan Pablo Chacon.

With Harrison and a disappointed Cook both absent, Warren began today’s press conference at London’s ExCel Arena sitting alone at the top table, where he gave his side of an increasingly sorry tale.

Later flanked by Amir Khan and British featherweight champion Andy Morris, both of whom will appear on a card now topped by Audley Harrison’s rematch against Danny Williams, Warren said: “Scott Harrison is gone as far as I am concerned.

“He is out of it, he is gone and the future of boxing is sitting to my right and to my left. These are the guys who are focused on their profession.”

Harrison has not fought since November last year, since when he has pulled out of a scheduled fight in March, been arrested twice, spent time in the Priory Clinic for alcohol problems, and endured six weeks in a Spanish jail cell.

Despite his period of incarceration, Harrison’s team insisted he would be fit to go through with his defence against Cook, and he was given permission to do so by the British Boxing Board of Control after undergoing stringent tests.

Warren added: “I was put in the position where there was a contract and the guy had to fight and, if he didn’t, I would have been liable.

“As long as he was physically and mentally fit to box and went through all the Board’s stringent check-weights, I would deliver.

“Was I happy about it? Not really, but it was being monitored by the Board and their medical experts and they did everything they could.

“The Board were in the same position as everybody else.”

Warren added he had experienced few nightmares as big as those afflicting his ExCel Arena show, which has become blighted by late-notice withdrawals.