Liam Harrison says Jonathan Haggerty's constant call-outs put the double champ in a bad light: "It backfired a bit"
Liam Harrison believes that Jonathan Haggerty shot himself in the foot with some of his recent comments.
Since becoming a two-sport world champion last year, 'The General' hasn't been short on challengers who were happy to step in there with him.
One feud that existed even before he achieved success in the bantamweight division was the tense relationship with Harrison.
The striking veteran believes that Haggerty has never given him the respect that he deserves but a clash between them never did materialize.
Whilst it could have been on the table at some stage, Harrison made the decision to move on from this during the long recovery process from his injury.
Haggerty, on the other hand, continued to mention it in interviews and 'The Hitman' thinks that this hurt his stock rather than raising it.
He spoke in an interview with the Sky Sports MMA Club about how the fans did not react well to the champion calling out a 38-year-old legend rather than the top contender:
"However, if that fight did happen and Haggerty did fight me, that's a bit of a lose-lose now and the people have shown that. Every comment I saw, 'Why are you calling out Liam, he's done this, he's done everything that you're doing now, fight Nico.' I think it backfired a bit on Haggerty."
Liam Harrison has made his feelings very clear
There was a period of time when, had Liam Harrison still been active and in fighting shape, a fight between him and Haggerty would have been huge.
Having been there and done it all in his career, he had the maturity to acknowledge that this time of fighting the best in the world was behind him.
The two striking Brits are set to share the card at ONE 168 in Denver, so there is likely to be more to this feud going forward.
Whilst Haggerty will be defending his bantamweight Muay Thai title against Superlek, Harrison will be making his long-awaited return from injury against fellow legend Seksan.
Tickets for ONE 168: Denver on September 6 are available via Ticketmaster.