Boxing News Boxing News
Tonight at the Echo Arena, Liverpool’s undefeated British and Commonwealth Heavyweight champion David Price returns to the ring in his toughest test in his four year professional career against the 41 year old American veteran and two time world title challenger Tony “The Tiger “ Thompson.
The 29 year old Price, who is currently 15-0 with 13 knockouts since turning professional back in 2009 after winning bronze medal in the Super-Heavyweight division at the Beijing Olympics, has a crafted a reputation as a powerful knockout artist and a future world champion in a post Klitschko era.
Or maybe even a potential challenger to the Klitschko dominance of which it would most likely Price would ended up facing Wladimir in a football stadium somewhere in Germany.
Wladimir’s elder brother Vitali, who holds the WBC belt at 41 years of age, has been slowly forging his political career in their native Ukraine on a anti-Corruption pro European Union manifesto which became the third biggest party there in their recent elections, and is a result considering his future within the sport.
However for Price, there is a giant obstacle that could potentially derail his and his promoter Frank Maloney’s plans for a world title shot in 2014. That obstacle comes in the shape of Thompson, a 41 year old southpaw who brings a record of 36 wins and 3 defeats, of which 2 of them where against the younger Klitschko, both of which ended in knockouts.
The first defeat came back in 2008 in Hamburg with an 11th round knockout, and second knockout loss came in just six rounds. However, Thompson has scored wins against former world title challengers Owen Beck and Vaughan Bean along with former two time European champion Luan Krasniqi.
These wins are above the best accomplishments of Price, who’s top victories were against former world title challengers Matt Skelton and Audley Harrison, who were both former European champions and Sam Sexton, the former Commonwealth champion.
All three of them were knocked out by Price as he continued his climb to a world title challenge. Thompson, like Harrison, is a tall southpaw standing at 6ft 5, which means Price would have to bide his time to get his jab going before landing the straight right hand, which is often an extremely effective weapon against a southpaw.
Price has the edge in terms of height, standing at 6ft 8in to Thompson’s 6ft 5in frame and the greater knockout percentage of 86.67% in comparison to 61.54%, plus the Englishman has one inch reach advantage.
However, the question still remains over Price’s chin, which has yet to be tested and his stamina, as he has only boxed just 39 rounds as professional, which is also clear sign of Price’s fight ending one punch power that has made him one of the most talked about fighters in the world.
In contrast, Thompson has been to the 10th round and beyond three times and will be looking to drag Price into deep water to see whether the Scouser will drown or not in his toughest test to date.
But Price has home advantage, youth and power on side against Thompson and will be looking to make a statement on the world stage that he is the rightful heir to the Klitschko throne and the best way to do that will be a successful tiger hunt against Thompson on tonight.
