THE world, according to Scott Harrison, had never appeared a better place. Fresh from a lopsided points victory over Julio Pablo Chacón, the new WBO featherweight champion saw new horizons, fresh goals, and looked ahead to his ultimate target of being hailed Scotland’s greatest boxer.

Draped in the world championship belt in his dressing-room at the Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Harrison looked a contented man and his efforts even earned a round of applause from the surrounding press pack. Not that there had ever been any doubts in Harrison’s mind that he would succeed. Asked when it dawned on him that he was going to be a world champion, he answered: “When I took up boxing.” When on the night had it dawned on him? “When I got here.”

Harrison, 25, from Cambuslang, boxed as if there were no fears and certainly no doubts. He took the bout to Chacón, stepping in behind powerful left jabs to land repeated combinations to head and body. As early as the fourth round, he had started to exert his power, backing the Argentine champion into the ropes, landing a hard straight right to the head, followed by a flurry of blows that had Chacón searching for refuge.

The trouble continued for Chacón in the next two rounds — one right hook knocking his gumshield flying — as Harrison dominated the centre of the ring, forcing the champion ever backwards.

Chacón rallied in the seventh and eighth rounds, landing well with his swinging left hook. But Harrison again upped the the pace in the final four rounds, catching Chacón repeatedly as the champion’s punches became ever more desperate.

The best was saved until last. Chacón, by now bleeding from a cut above his right eye and gasping for air, was drilled back by straight lefts and rights. While Chacón did find himself on the floor, it was ruled a slip. The decision was unanimous and overwhelming. Two judges scored it 117-111, the third 117-112.

“I can still get better,” Harrison promised. “This was only my twentieth fight. This is the start of a whole new career for me as a world champion. I’ve still got a lot to learn and there’s a whole lot more to come from me.”

Many observers felt that Chacón, who had won the title in dramatic fashion when stopping István Kovács, the former Olympic champion, in front of a partisan Hungarian crowd, would be a step too far for Harrison at this stage of his career. Indeed, the champion seemed to revel as the outsider against another home-town hero.

“I expected him to be tough,” Harrison said. “But the plan was just to keep taking the fight to him and keep him backing off. I thought I won every round.” With his son now Scotland’s eighth world champion, Peter Harrison, father and trainer, at last had a chance to relax after the pressure of an intense eight-week build-up.

“It felt like the whole of Scotland was willing him on, expecting Scott to win, whether they followed boxing or not,” Harrison Sr said. “At the weigh-in (held at the arena’s neighbouring shopping centre the day before), an elderly woman saw Scott coming down an escalator as she was going up. She ran down the other side and chased after him, just to wish him good luck.”

Certainly the impact that Harrison had had north of the border was not lost on Frank Warren, the promoter. Harrison has had to box for much of his career as the “away” boxer, but Warren vowed to make all his challengers come to Scotland. And, after filling the 5,000-capacity arena, he said he was now searching for a larger venue.

Wayne McCullough, the former WBC bantamweight champion from Belfast, who was at ringside, is likely to be Harrison’s first challenger, possibly in March, presuming he wins his latest comeback bout in his home city on November 2. If, after Saturday night, he still fancies his chances, that is.

On the undercard, the boxer who many predict will be Scotland’s next world champion, Alex Arthur, of Edinburgh, won the first significant title of his professional career when he knocked out Steve Conway, of Dewsbury, in the fourth round to win the vacant British super-featherwight title.