By Ben Dirs BBC Sport at Manchester's MEN Arena

Hungry Harrison stops Brodie

One minute there was Michael Brodie, arcing hurtful hooks into Scott Harrison's body, making us believe that tonight - just maybe tonight - a world title might be his at the fourth time of asking.

No more than 30 minutes later, Brodie stood in his dressing room, suited and booted, announcing his retirement and intention to get royally drunk in the pubs and clubs of Manchester.

To those not in the know, boxing was at its most fickle at the MEN Arena on Friday.

But the end, sudden as it was, did not come as a shock to those who had heard the disturbing rumours coming out of Brodie's camp before the fight.

Word was that his two horrific collisions with Korea's Injin Chi had left him running on fumes, that he had been knocked down twice in sparring, that he could come to serious harm at the clubbing hands of Harrison.

I've had a long career - that's the end of me Michael Brodie Brodie bows out after loss

Mercifully, Glasgow's WBO featherweight champion was clinical enough to spare Brodie too much punishment and send him into life beyond boxing with his faculties intact.

The 31-year-old Brodie can be proud of his achievements, despite never snaffling any of the sport's biggest prizes.

As he said himself afterwards, not many men have won British, European and Commonwealth belts.

And not many men have provided such raw thrills in a domestic ring.

As for Harrison, he can look forward to bigger nights against some of the more glamorous names in and around the nine-stone ranks.

WBA and IBF featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez and WBC super featherweight king Marco Antonio Barrera are the two class acts promoter Frank Warren is lining up.

Big respect to Michael Brodie - I respect him 100% Scott Harrison Harrison in line for unification

Both men of Mexico, where they breed them toughest, either man would be a significant step up from anyone Harrison has faced before.

But it would be a deserved reward for someone criminally undervalued in his native Scotland, a country screaming out for genuine sporting heroes.

Harrison had raucous travelling support at the MEN Arena but is unable to fill arenas in Glasgow, a fact that irritates his manager Frank Maloney so much he has threatened to take his man on the road for good.

And with Warren already talking with American television network Showtime about bringing Marquez to Britain, it would be a shame if Harrison did not follow in the footsteps of Jim Watt, Scotland's last great boxing son, and fight his biggest battles surrounded by kith and kin.

All in all, Harrison v Brodie was a tasty hors d'oeuvre before Sunday morning's main course.