SCOTT HARRISON is counting the days to his comeback...but 29 is the number he can't quite get out of his head.
On Friday, June 29, at the Kelvin Hall, the former WBO champion will return to the square ring after an absence of six-and-a-half years looking to destroy the French Algerian Brahim Bariz in a manner that suggests he can defy father time and the snipers lying in wait.
Harrison knows he has messed up - and done so on more occasions than he cares to remember.
He accepts that, thanks to city promoter Alex Morrison, he is firmly in the last-chance saloon in his bid to regain former glories.
And he admits the memories of his two reigns as WBO featherweight champion, spanning three years between 2002 and 2005, are the driving force behind the comeback nobody thought would ever happen – and a great many still doubt will.
Harrison's eyes glaze as he recalls the harsh confines of a Spanish jail cell where he was made to pay for his misdemeanours.
But they burn as the voices of an army of fans chanting his nickname "Hagi" over and over again, accompanied by the strains of Flower of Scotland being sung before the first bell is sounded, forge an unbreakable determination within him to reclaim his former glories.
In an exclusive and candid interview with SportTimes, just 25 days before he aims to turn the clock back, Harrison reveals all.
He said: "Through the years of my suspension and when I was in the nick in Spain and at my lowest, I could still hear the fans chanting my name 'Hagi, Hagi, Hagi' and could still hear Flower of Scotland being sung in the ring.
"I'd be sitting in my cell and everything had fallen to pieces but that kept me going. It had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up and it kept me believing.
"On June 29, I want to experience that again. I want to put on a real show against Brahim Bariz for the fans.
"I want them to see I am back and I am the real deal."
Harrison added: "There have been times when I have thought I would never make it back in the ring, but it is so close now I can almost hear the fans, smell the sweat.
"Now it is great knowing who my opponent is, great I can visualize Bariz, knowing what he looks like. Come June 29, I will prove I am back."
Sitting on the apron of the ring in Morrison's newly- refurbished ring, we recalled old glories.
A jaunt across the pond as a comparative unknown when he handed out a boxing lesson to former world champion Tracy Harris-Patterson over 10 rounds at the legendary Madison Square Garden.
A performance so good it stunned a noisy crowd of New Yorkers as they waited for the Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield world heavyweight title fight top of the bill.
The spectacular three-round destruction of former world champion Steve Robinson at the Bellahouston Centre in defence of the British and Commonwealth featherweight titles, in November 2001.
The never-to-be-forgotten night in October, 2002 when Harrison won the world title at Braehead Arena over 12 rounds against Argentinian bull Julio Pablo Chacon and countless others.
Again Harrison's eyes focus on one man, Bariz. The man Harrison will face in the fight he now rates as the most important of a boxing career that had seemed ruined beyond redemption.
Harrison said: "Three weeks on Friday at the Kelvin Hall, I have Brahim Bariz and I know I need to make a statement.
"I have been out of the ring for more than six years and around three of these I have been in prison. I have a lot to make up for.
"There has been a lot of wasted time there. But I have a good training team with my dad Peter as my trainer, Alex Morrison my manager and George Fleming my strength and conditioning coach.
"My plan is to be here for a while. Bariz is durable and has only been stopped once in 39 fights."
Determined to atone for his indiscretions, he is candid about how low he has sunk.
Harrison said: "I let my family down. I let my fans down and I have let myself down. But there comes a point when you have to stop beating yourself up and look forward.
"I have done things I regret and I am far from perfect, but I have one thing in my life that can give me and my family a life, and that is boxing.
"I know at 34, time is not on my side and that is why I know I have to make it work this time. It is pretty much my last chance."
He added: "Right now I have just one date in mind and that is June 29. I have a job to do on Bariz. After I have done that we can look upwards again.
"I can promise it won't go 10 rounds. I feel the healthiest I have done in a long time, I feel motivated and I want to make a statement to the fans that Scott Harrison is back."