Matty body shots are too much for Garber

Matty Harris and Garber at the weigh-in before Newcastle showdown

THE sheer scale of the giant in your path is really hammered home when coming face-to-face with Matty Harris. Actually, it’s usually face to chest.

It’s akin to spotting a skyscraper in a land of bungalows.

That’s when the statistics – 6ft 8ins, 18-and-a-half stone – mean something. In an era of very big heavyweights, the Coventry 25-year-old is a colossus.

Harris, managed by Max McCracken, trainer by Peter Fury, peeled off his ninth pro win on Friday, outpointing game, but outgunned Dan Garber by a six round country mile.

On his promoter Wasserman Boxing’s big bill at the Utilita Arena, Newcastle, Garber was dropped by body shots in the fourth and fifth but survived to hear the final bell.

And the Bradford 40-year-old is no slouch. He’d won six of 15 going into the bout, mixed in very good class and more than held his own against men below the domestic scene’s top bracket.

Under Fury, likeable Harris – a man who joined the paid ranks with scant top flight amateur experience – is learning his craft at a sensible pace against sensible opposition.

He is still wearing L Plates.

Yet that was forgotten by the national press when Harris, after winning his debut on points, demolished his next four opponents inside a single round.

Reporters waxed lyrical as if they had witnessed the re-incarnation of Sonny Liston. They portrayed a ring monster.

The mass TV and media exposure placed an awful lot of pressure on Harris’ broad shoulders and in his sixth fight he buckled.

Before the cameras, Matty was stopped in five by granite chinned Ukrainian Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko. He appeared spent and was taking punches without reply at the finish.

On reflexion, that defeat helped Harris by halting the press pandemonium. The spotlight dimmed and he was able to continue the ring education free from hype.

Garber was his fourth win since the Dovbyshchenko defeat, he was poised and picked his shots well.

Manager McCracken said: “Matty controlled the action and was nice and relaxed and showed his skills and punch power. Garber did well to get up and go one.

“One body shot was a good left hook that had Garber in obvious pain and gasping. He took a knee before getting up and beating the count. The other a hard right hook round the back of the elbow.

“Matty was comfortable in there and enjoyed himself - he was told to get the rounds in by his trainer Peter Fury. It was a good, valuable six rounds in the bank, although it looked like Matty could have got Garber out of there at any time.

“Going forward, rounds banked and experience gained is what is needed. He’s improving and just needs to stay in the gym and keep working at his craft.

“Down the road, big opportunities will come As his manager, I’m looking to get him back out as soon as possible, possibly in August on a Wassermann Channel 5 show.”