Boxing: Great Scott stuns Brodie

It was not the type of fight that Scott Harrison thought it would be but it was the ending that everybody expected.

It was not the type of fight that Scott Harrison thought it would be but it was the ending that everybody expected.

Harrison retained his World Boxing Organisation featherweight title with a fourth-round knockout of the local fighter Michael Brodie here in Manchester last night, but the Scottish champion looked vulnerable and hurt along the way.

Brodie was fighting for a future that nobody really expected him to have, but in the second and third rounds he took control of the fight and was picking off Harrison easily.

In the opening round Harrison had moved closer, reducing the distance between the fighters and had repeatedly caught and stunned Brodie, who had not fought for 14 months.

However, after an ugly exchange of words at the conclusion of the first round, Brodie started to use his head and left Harrison looking very ordinary at times.

Harrison appears to be lacking motivation in a career that has not yet seen him receive the recognition that he believes is his due. Last night was the fifth defence of his second reign as the WBO champion and it was a fight that nobody expected him to lose. But there were moments when it was obvious that the younger and fresher Brodie could have taken control and changed last night's result.

At the end of the third round, just as the bell was fading, Harrison connected with a short left hook to Brodie's stomach and that really was the punch that ended the fight, leaving Brodie in obvious pain.

In the fourth round, Harrison sensibly went in search of the same punch and it took him precisely 36 seconds to tuck the short but brutal left hook in under Brodie's right elbow and this time the fight was officially over. Brodie took a step backwards and then collapsed into a squatting position before trying without much conviction to beat the referee's count of 10. It was officially over at 46 seconds into the round but the final result will forever fail to tell the story of the short and entertaining fight.

Harrison will now sit down, not for the first time, with his manager Frank Maloney and his promoter Frank Warren and try to persuade them to get him a big fight in America in some type of unification series because that is the type of challenge he so clearly needs.