Harrison faces being stripped of title

Key quote "He isn't injured, his problems are clearly mental ones and legal ones. The way Scott has handled this title fight has been a disgrace. Scott has four fights left on his contract with Sports Network, but that is now in the hands of my lawyer." - Frank Warren

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SCOTT Harrison, the troubled World Boxing champion, could be stripped of his title after pulling out of a scheduled defence against Guyanese challenger Gairy St Clair in Belfast on Saturday.

The 28-year-old Glaswegian, who has been arrested on licensed premises twice in the last three weeks, withdrew from the fight yesterday morning and provoked an angry reaction from his promoter Frank Warren who is now reviewing his contract with the boxer.

Harrison, who became only the ninth Scot to win a boxing world title when he defeated Julio Pablo Chacon of Argentina to claim the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) featherweight belt in October 2002, is due to appear in court in September to face charges of breach of the peace, refusing to leave a licensed premises, resisting arrest and police assault as a result of an alleged incident at the Counting House pub in Glasgow on 23 April.

On Sunday, he was picked up by the police again, this time on suspicion of possessing drugs at the Lomond Park Hotel in Balloch, Dunbartonshire.

Massimo Franchi, Harrison's lawyer, confirmed to The Scotsman that his client had pulled out of Saturday's fight for personal and health reasons. Franchi was meeting with Harrison, his father and trainer Peter and manager Frank Maloney last night and intends to release a statement on the boxer's behalf today.

"This goes beyond boxing," said Mr Franchi, "we are talking about someone's health being at stake."

It remains to be seen if Harrison can convince the WBO he has a valid reason to withdraw from Saturday's fight at such short notice. Under the organisation's regulations, "if a world champion fails to comply with his contractual obligations to fight in a world championship bout without justifiable cause... he may be stripped of his title."

What does appear certain is that Harrison will not fight again under the Sports Network banner of Warren, Britain's most powerful and influential boxing promoter who made no attempt to disguise his unhappiness with the Scot yesterday.

"I'm totally disgusted by this," said Warren. "I was told at 10am this morning he was able to fight, then I was called back a little while later to say he had pulled out.

"He isn't injured, his problems are clearly mental ones and legal ones. The way Scott has handled this title fight has been a disgrace. Scott has four fights left on his contract with Sports Network, but that is now in the hands of my lawyer."

Mr Maloney, the London-based manager who has been with Harrison for ten years, said:

"This is not the time to start crucifying Scott Harrison," he said.

"This goes a lot deeper than people think, it is about his life and his future. Scott is very upset and I would go as far as to say I don't think he realises what is going on at the moment.

"I've had a lot of good times with Scott, so I'm not going to jump off a sinking ship. We will get together and try to get to the root of the trouble because there are more important things than a boxing career."

Saturday night's event at the King's Hall in Belfast will still go ahead. All 6,000 tickets have been sold for the show which also features former Olympic lightweight gold medallist Amir Khan and will be televised live on ITV1.