TO SOME he is Audrey. To others he is Fraudley. To all, Audley Harrison’s spectacular failure to follow up his Olympic super-heavyweight gold medal has been the most mystifying non-event in sport.

Few, if any, Olympic boxing champions have had their laurels chucked in the bin by such plummeting, self-induced loss of public interest. In Sydney, Harrison said he would be British champion in five bouts. It is now five years later.

Harrison is the anti-heir to Pete Rademacher, the 1956 Olympic heavyweight champion who challenged Floyd Patterson for the world title in his first pro bout. Rademacher’s lunatic strategy was somewhat admired. Harrison’s merely prompts head-shaking. It may come as a surprise, then, that I strongly advise that we all have a bet on him to become world champion by the end of next year.

The reason, I emphasise, is not ignorance of Harrison’s delusional nature, innate over-caution, untested chin, struggles with his sometimes ample girth and his — frankly — often bonkers thinking, noticeably his apparent belief that time stands still. It is not that I think Harrison is necessarily capable of doing it. The reason is simple: William Hill’s odds of 6-1 against him winning a WBC, WBA, IBF or WBO title by the end of 2006 are so good as to be outlandish for a boxer of Harrison’s pedigree and simply have to be taken.

I have done so this week, quite heavily by my standards. Get on too. The odds won’t last and will be slashed if and when big Audley beats Danny Williams on December 10.

Several questions had to be asked about Harrison before putting money down. Will he beat Williams? Will he then secure a title shot by the end of 2006? And why are Hill’s odds so generous? The last was the easiest to answer. I happen to know that Hill’s have taken the position that, even though Harrison is favourite, Williams is capable of scoring an upset. That is reflected in Harrison’s relatively generous odds of 7-4 on — also worth taking.

I think they have got it wrong. Williams’s victory over Mike Tyson has been devalued by Tyson’s surrender against Kevin McBride. Williams then got a shellacking from Vitali Klitschko, the WBC champion, that cast him back into oblivion. Would Williams agree to take on Harrison if his career were not backed against a wall? I doubt it.

Then, getting Harrison a world-title shot before the bet runs out? If he stays a promotional lone wolf, that may prove problematic. Outside of Britain, he brings little money to the table. He has been boxing on American undercards. But for all his possible weaknesses, he is a big lump with fast hands. None of the other contenders have shown an eagerness to risk facing him.

The promoter behind Williams v Harrison is Frank Warren, handler of Williams, former suitor (unsuccessful) of Harrison and big honcho in world boxing. There, a scenario presents itself.

Harrison wins, Warren and he settle their differences and get spliced. Harrison climbs the ratings to land a title shot. Stranger things have happened. The bet is on. Harrison may not beat Klitschko, but he would stand a chance with the other three champions. At 6-1, it’s got to be had.

The New York boxing trainer, Teddy Atlas, a man of principle who walked out on Tyson when the millions were looming, once told me that the problem he had with most boxers was teaching them to be themselves. They had such tortured upbringings that they had no sense of their own identities.

Harrison fits this profile — he was motherless from a young age — and, it seems to me, has racked his post-Olympic career with a vortex of confusion and self-doubt, as if he can’t quite believe what he did in Sydney.

I don’t want Audley to be himself. We’ve had enough of that already. Five years. I want the “A-Force”, the wrecking creature of his imagination. The one that lived at the Olympics. The one that’s going to win us a load of dough.

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