I went to watch the amateur boxing last Saturday night. No, not the inaugural GB Championships in Liverpool, though I rather wish I had because by all accounts they were excellent and great value for money. Alas, I was 30 miles across the M62 in Manchester where I did indeed watch the amateur boxing: name of Audley Harrison.

For there was nothing professional about Audley's non-performance against David Haye, and value for money - whether shelled out by the 20,0000 crowd or 700,000 Sky Box Office customers - the WBA world heavyweight title fight certainly was not.

The trouble with big Audley is that, while he turned professional after winning the Olympic super-heavyweight gold medal in Sydney a decade ago, he has never really left the amateurs. He still boxes as if he is in headguard and vest. Yet this is the man who extracted £1 million of taxpayers' money out of a naive BBC for fighting hand-picked tomato cans and  now £1.5 million for a title challenge in which he threw only one half-hearted jab in three rounds. It just shows that in boxing you can fool all of the people all of the time.

Harrison's pacifism was an insult those young plucky guys - and girls -  who were punching their hearts out on Merseyside for the privilege of establishing their credentials as Britain's 2012 Olympic hopefuls.

Had the Haye-Harrison 'fight' been a horse race there would have been a stewards' inquiry: One non-trier and a favourite who announced he had bet on  himself - although the Hayemaker has now prudently denied it.

As promoter Frank Maloney murmured to me afterwards at the MEN Arena ringside: "The trouble with Audley is that he likes the fight game - he just doesn't like fighting." And I received this subsequent text from Frank Warren. "Why does everyone hate Audley Harrison? Its not as if he's ever hurt anyone."

It is a shame Harrison ever turned pro. His style was always made for the amateurs. He knew how to work the hit-and hop-it scoring system, was braver because he had the protection of a headguard and also safety-conscious referees who have been known to stop the fight at the first hint of a nosebleed. The pro game is also then hurt game, which is why Harrison, who has the height, the reach and just occasionally the punch,  has never really had the stomach for it. He fights shy of taking risks - though on  Saturday he simply didn't fight at all.

But there was no conspiracy. David Haye knew he could take Harrison out any time he wanted, and he picked the third, much to the delight of friends, family and several Sky employees who pocketed tidy sums betting on his freely-given forecast. Nothing untoward in that. Muhammad Ali did it all the time, and happily held up inferior opposition whenever he could.



Back in 1975, Ali was matched with Britain's Richard Dunn, who, like Haye, got the shot because he was European champion. But, also like Harrison, he wasn't much cop. When US television executives finally watched clips of some of his previous fights, and saw how easy he was to hit, they pressed the panic button, having sold several minutes worth of between-rounds commercials.

As the story goes they gingerly approached Ali and pleaded with him to make the fight last at least seven rounds. Ali, agreed (he'd also watched the tapes), and barely laid a glove on Dunn for three rounds, When he caught him with a couple of half-hearted shots in the fourth poor old Richard was all over the place.

At the end of the round Ali leaned over the ropes and beckoned to the TV producer at ringside: "Hey," he said, "You'd better get those commercials in quick. I can't hold this sucker up any longer." And he didn't.

No doubt Haye knew the feeling. But enough of the A-Farce. The good news for boxing is that a real pro steps into the ring on Saturday week in an attempt to refurbish the sport's image and regain the WBC world super-middleweight title. Nottingham's Carl 'The Cobra' Froch fights the German slugger Arthur Abraham, in Helsinki, and the one thing of which we can be certain is that Froch, a world amateur championships bronze medalist in 2001 (when England team-mate Haye won silver) will come out fighting. He is the consumate pro, and some of his professionalism has rubbed off on Britain's current GB squad via their common coach Rob McCracken.

Froch often spars with some of the amateur boys in Sheffield, passing on useful tips and giving them great encouragement.

As I said, in retrospect I am sorry to have missed the GB Championships, though it was good to catch up later thanks to the BBC's welcome decision to show a well-packaged programe last Sunday. The competition pitted the best amateurs from England, Scotland and Wales against GB Boxing's first choice boxers. All eleven winners were members of GB's podium or development squads, which augurs well for 2012.

Particularly pleasing was the comprehensive 23-6 victory scored by tall bantamweight Luke Campbell over Iain Weaver, who following his Commonwealth Games gold, was looking a decent bet for the Olympic team.

I have always liked the application and attitude of the 23-year-old Hull southpaw. He has the distinction of being one of the trio of British boxers to have won major international championships in recent years. Two years ago, as Britain's first European champion in almost half a century, he joined Beijing gold medalist James DeGale and Frankie Gavin, Britain's first world champion, both now pros, on amateur boxing's podium of pride. Campbell received a number of professional offers after winning his European gold but insisted: "The 2012 Olympics has been my one and only dream"

Unfortunately, he suffered a series of hand injuries and a subsequent loss of form saw him omitted from  last year's European Championships in Russia,  and although unbeaten this year he was not selected for the Delhi's Commonwealth Games. But unlike dear old Audley he bit on his gumshield and came out fighting again last weekend.

Such is Campbell's resolve that he has twice paid his own way to visit Freddie Roach's Wild Card gym in Los Angeles, where he picked up tips  from stars like Manny Pacquaio and Amir Khan who train there. "It was a great experience," he said. "I knew Amir worked with Freddie and that gave me the idea of going. Me and a friend from my boxing gym just turned up and I said, 'I'm Luke Campbell from Britain, can I stay and watch?' Freddie was great, he said, 'Yes, of course you can'. He didn't charge us anything and usually you have to pay quite a lot just to get in."

With such enterprise, Campbell - and  British amateur boxing - can enjoy a ring of confidence for 2012. As for Audley, as Simon Cowell would say to all embarrasingly hopeless acts: Thank you, we've seen enough. Kindly leave the stage.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire