Vivian Harris

"Vicious" Vivian Harris (born June 17, 1978) is a boxer who was born in Georgetown, Guyana and now resides in Brooklyn, New York. Harris began boxing at the age of twelve, and has since gained prominence in the boxing world for his aggression. His nickname "Vicious" comes from his habit to sit on all of his punches, often looking for a knockout. He has had problems with fighters with "awkward" styles, and has known to be mentally unstable in championship fights.

Amateur career

After Harris arrived in the U.S., he began his amateur boxing career, racking up 45 wins, 5 losses, and 32 KO's. In 1995, Harris won the Metros championship, and the New York Golden Gloves two years later. Following these successes, Harris turned professional in 1997.

He is set to box again, on 29th October 2008, against Octavio Narvaez, this will be Harris' first fight back since being outboxed, and then ultimately KO'd by England's former WBC Champ, Junior Witter in September 2007, Harris is now a Welterweight.

Professional career

Harris made his professional debut on November 4, 1997 when he fought Levi Long and KO'd him in the first minute of the first round. In December of the same year, Harris defeated Adam Salas, forcing the referee to stop the bout prematurely.

This pattern of aggressive fighting continued for years. Harris successfully won against several competitors, until he faced Ray Oliveira in early 2000. Harris was not able to match Oliveira's overall punch output, and consequently lost a 10-round decision. Later that year, Harris was matched against Ivan Robinson, a fight which many thought he convincingly won. However, due to New Jersey's consensus scoring system, Harris was forced to accept a draw.

On October 19, 2002, Harris defeated Diobelys Hurtado and captured the WBA junior welterweight title. Harris defended his title twice in the next two years against Souleyman Mbaye and Oktay Urkal, respectively.

In June 2005 Harris was set to fight Colombian boxer Carlos Maussa as a part of the Thunder and Lighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. v. Arturo Gatti pay-per-view. Harris started the fight aggressively, and hurt Moussa in the first round. He continued to apply pressure, gunning for a knockout. However Moussa survived, and started to get stronger as the fight went on.

At this point, Harris grew visibly tired as he desperately tried to score a knockout. However, in the seventh round, Maussa caught Harris with a left hook that successfully sent Harris to the canvas. As the referee began counting, Maussa delivered another punch to Harris as he was down, although Harris was already hurt by the first blow, and the subsequent late punch did not land cleanly. Harris failed to answer the 10-count and the bout was scored as a knockout for Maussa.

Vivian Harris and Junior Witter met on Sept.6, 2007 in Doncaster, England, fighting for the WBC light welterweight belt. Witter came out more aggressive than usual, winning the first 6 rounds until knocking Harris out in the 7th with a punishing left hook that caught Harris off-guard. Harris once again fell short of winning a championship, not able to answer the count of 10 in his 2nd straight title fight.

Harris' professional record now stands at 25 wins, 17 KO's, 3 losses, 1 draw, with a total of 28 fights.

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