Will The David Price Failure Be Symbolic For British Boxing?

Watching 41 year old American heavyweight Tony Thompson lumber around the ring after Liverpool’s favourite son David Price in their rematch on Saturday night, completely disdainful of Price’s abilities, knowing that he only had to land a few good shots to get the local man out of there, was not a good thing for the future of British Boxing.

Not even having trained with Lennox Lewis could save Price from a distinct inability to fight on the inside.

From the third round on, time after time, Thompson would have free reign to operate at close quarters as Price did not clinch, punch back or adequately defend himself. And let’s face facts; Tony Thompson isn’t exactly the second coming of Muhammad Ali.

Was Price properly developed prior to facing Thompson in their initial contest back in February?

Being put in with a five fighters that he halted in a total of ten rounds, of which two of them, Matt Skelton and Audley Harrison, were miles past their best form and the other three, Sam Sexton, John McDermott and Tom Dallas, are English/Commonwealth title level opponents.

So, no, he wasn’t properly developed prior to facing Thompson.

Additionally, McDermott had exposed that a moderately quick-handed fighter would have no trouble hitting Price and Skeleton had established that Price had very little ability to handle a strong opponent on the inside.

Had Price managed to finish off Thompson in the second round of their rematch, would he have had a shred of a chance against Wladimir Klitschko?

Speaking of British heavyweights, another hopeful will likely bite the dust if Tyson Fury does indeed face David Haye later this year; after all, if light-hitting former cruiserweight Steve Cunningham can tag Fury flush and drop him hard…

We next head to the light heavyweight division, where there are two fighters at world level; Nathan Cleverly and Tony Bellew.

Cleverly has good skills but has not been put in with adequate opponents, aside from a good clash with Bellew two years ago, despite having five defenses of the WBO crown.

The reason for this protection is a hoped for pairing with IBF king Bernard Hopkins but Cleverly does see the pillows come off somewhat in August when he defends against Florida based Russian slugger Sergey Kovalev.

Kovalev has KO’d 19 of 21 opponents, however, only one of them was a top level fighter, ex-WBA champ Gabriel Campillo. Either Kovalev or Cleverly will be exposed when they face off in Cardiff.

Bellew, who was himself exposed by Issac Chilemba to be suffering from a Tyson Fury-like level of inflated sense of skills in March, came back to outpoint Chilemba just two months later.

Bellew is rumored to be nearing a WBC title challenge to newly-minted champ Adonis Stevenson and it could possibly be a good chance for the Liverpool stylist to win on points but it is a massive step up and Bellew must sharpen his defense greatly if he is to avoid the hammer-like blows of Stevenson.

At super-middle, Carl Froch stands head and shoulders above his domestic competition and will likely pulverize the much younger and heavily hyped George Groves should they face off as reports have indicated.

James DeGale has decent skills but his lazy style in the ring all but ensures he won’t make the leap to world level and his loss to Groves was no accident.

The UK middleweight division has been a hot one lately on the strength of the respectable but failed world title shots of Darren Barker, Martin Murray and Matthew Macklin.

Some of the losses the trio had against the likes of the aging Sergio Martinez and Felix Sturm were unquestionably bad decisions but Macklin’s devastating KO at the hands of WBA king Gennady Golovkin mirrors what will happen to Barker and Murray should they take the Golovkin test.

Barker has a title shot coming against IBF boss Daniel Geale in August and has a good chance of winning that and if so, a huge domestic clash with
Murray would be a big earner.

At welter, the top men are Amir Khan and Kell Brook. Khan is far more accomplished but has hurt his future prospects by the inability to fight smart, choosing to slug it out with a puncher like Danny Garcia despite having superior boxing skills and a dodgy chin.

Khan was almost KO’d by ex-lightweight champ Julio Diaz in April and was handed a gift points decision. It is hard to see Khan recapturing a world title; is he past it at just 26 years of age?

Then we come to Brook, who looks unbeatable against domestic opposition and imports but was busted up by American veteran Carson Jones last year in a fight that Brook narrowly won.

Brook was due to challenge IBF champ Devon Alexander several times over the last six months but the bouts were scuppered by injury. For Brook, this is a good thing as he needs to fight better opponents leading to a leap like that.

Ricky Burns rules the lightweights in old blighty but the less said the better about his most recent defense, in which he was losing badly to Jose Gonzalez before the challenger suffered a reported wrist injury and bizarrely folded.

Don’t expect a rematch anytime soon.

At super bantam there are the duo of Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg. Neither have had their Brook vs. Jones moment yet but that is probably coming for the pair of them.

They are being steered in the same manner as Brook and the leap to genuine world level, when it comes, will probably be too big of an ask.

The two should face off this year in what should be a cracking fight with the winner to get a title shot; hopefully that won’t come against WBO/WBA champ Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Bantam Jamie McDonnell completed an incredible career turnaround by winning the vacant IBF title in May and should be able to keep hold of it for a few defenses.