David Haye KOs timid Harrison in third round

The cynics said it would be a fight not worth the candle - and they were not disappointed. David Haye trounced Audley Harrison in last night's WBA heavyweight title fight in front a 22,000 capacity crowd at the MEN Arena in Manchester.

They and the audience at home who forked out to watch the pay-per-view bout hardly got their money's worth - it was all over in the third round as Haye totally overpowered the older man.

The first round had the crowd booing for some action. The second wasn't much better, with Haye finally unleashing his right fist, but Harrison soaking it up.

Then came the third. Haye suddenly woke up and launched a volley of punches at Harrison's head. Harrison collapsed but came round on the count of eight, only to be knocked out in a second rain of blows, with only 1 min and 53 secs on the clock.

Having boasted before the fight that the two men would "fight like cats and dogs", Harrison got in only one punch all night. As Nick Pitt of the Sunday Times put it, he contributed "next to nothing" to a fight which is reputed to have earned him close to £1m.

Kevin Mitchell of the Observer said Puerto Rican referee Louis Pabon was probably the most popular man in the building for warning both men for their passivity in the second round.

Harrison had little to say for himself afterwards except that he "started a bit slowly" and that he had "planned" to take Haye later in the fight.

Haye made it clear his earnings from the night would be a lot higher than Harrison's. "I put a lot of money on the third round and a lot of my friends and family did," he said. "I didn't want to let them down by doing him too early."

Will Haye now take on a real fighter in the shape of Ukrainian heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko or his brother Vitali?

"Next year I promise that fight is going to happen," said Haye. "There is nowhere else for them guys to go. If they want to fight for big money they've got to come to me."

We'll believe that when we see it. As The First Post reported before last night's fight, both Haye and Harrison are bigmouths - and nothing has changed, except one was hurting a lot more than the other when they woke up this morning. ·