The 'action'
The fight itself was slow to get going... then it ended. In the first round neither fighter really threw a meaningful punch, although the judges probably gave it to Haye for at least looking like he intended to. The second round started with more of the same, although Harrison committed the fundamental error of landing with his only punch of the night - a solid jab - which just made Haye mad. Haye started backing-up Harrison and landed with a few meaty crosses. Definitely Haye's round.
In the third, Haye quickly got through with a couple of crosses, at least one of which clearly hurt Harrison. That was all the prompting Haye needed - having apparently predicted a third round KO - and he promptly set about Harrison with playground abandon. Possibly the saddest indictment of Harrison as a boxer is that he wasn't even getting hit on the counter - he was in full defensive mode with his guard up - but he still couldn't do anything to prevent the Haye assault.
Before long Harrison hit the canvas, but got up with plenty of time and took the rest of the count standing. Haye then literally sprinted across the ring to finish Harrison off and, with the latter not even making the pretence of fighting back, the ref had seen enough and stopped the fight - TKO 3. It seemed a little bit early at the time, but then again, there was no prospect of a Harrison counter-attack so why delay the inevitable?
In retrospect, the fight turned out exactly as everyone expected from such mismatched opponents. The fact that it lasted three rounds was little consolation as the first two were so uneventful, but boxing will breathe a sigh of relief that the right man won, convincingly, and without controversy.
And what of 3D? It's fun and cool, there's definitely massive novelty value and, as more technology is applied to it and more content produced in 3D, it will become a more compelling proposition. But the question for most people will be: does it justify the additional expense and inconvenience. The answer, at least from me and my guests, is: right now, no.
But the mere fact that this event was being hosted at all - and it can't have been cheap - shows how much the consumer electronics and content industries have invested in 3D. For most of us it will probably become a reality when the technology becomes a default on new TVs, and until then I suspect it will stay in early-adopter territory. However, if Sky wants to continue to try to convince me otherwise by inviting me to live sports events, I think it would be rude not to accommodate them.
