By Nate Anderson: 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist for Britain David Price (1-0, 1 KOs) got off his professional boxing career to a good start last night with a 3rd round stoppage of David Ingleby (6-25-1, 4 KOs) at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, England.
Price, 26, dropped Ingleby with a powerful right hand in the 3rd. However, the performance was made much less impressive on the account of Price being hurt from a big right hand moments earlier when Price amateurishly stopped fighting when his mouthpiece fell out in the 3rd.
Without the referee stopping the action, when Price noticed that his mouthpiece had fell out, he stopped and looked down at the canvas for a moment, which gave Ingleby a free shot. Ingleby then landed a big looping right hand that landed hard to the side of Price’s head, knocking him backwards several steps.
It was readily apparent that Price was actually hurt from the shot, because as soon as the action resumed, he glued his hands to his head and covered up while Ingleby teed off with a half a dozen shots to Price’s head and body.
However, this seemed to anger Price, who then savagely attacked Ingleby in return, landing a hard right uppercut that hurt Ingleby. Price then loaded up with a huge right hand and grunted loudly as he connected with it, the punch knocking Ingleby flat on his face.
Ingleby got up after several moments, blood streaming from his nose and staggered backwards and fell into the ropes and the arms of his trainer. The fight was immediately stopped by the referee.
Price, 6’8”, dominated the first two rounds, blasting Ingleby with big right hands from the outside and spearing him long jabs. Price landed well to the body and head with short hooks. However, I didn’t care for the way that he scrunched down when boxing, giving up a lot of his height and looking like a big crane.
Instead of using his height and reach and electing to fight on the outside, Price made the mistake of standing close and throwing short jabs and right hands. I soon realized that Price doesn’t appear to be capable of fighting at a full distance for some reason.
It looks as if he’s unable to get full extension on his shots because he doesn’t seem to be able to straighten his arms out long enough to take advantage of his long reach. Price’s arms seem to lack flexibility to extend all the way out, and are in a kind of permanent semi curl.
That’s too bad, because at 6’8″, he would be dominant at a distance where he could pound away like the Klitschko brothers without getting hit. Instead, Price fights in close range, negating his height and reach, and not getting maximum power on his shots because of his inability to fight at the proper distance to get full leverage on his shots.
I also didn’t like the way that Price would take turns punching and defending. Price looked more like a sparring partner than a prospect to me. What made Price look so especially bad was that he would throw a few punches, then cover up in for awhile and just let Ingleby pound away at him.
This is a bad habit that Price needs to change, because by covering up like that, it’s as if he has a sign taped to him saying ‘Hit me.’ He’d be better served by clinching if he’s not going to be doing anything, or better yet using his feet to move around the ring a little.
However, movement isn’t something he’s good at because of his big size. Price looks uncomfortable and slow when he does any movement at all. Price’s movement probably will never be any better than it is now, but he still needs to try and work on it somehow.
In the 3rd round, Price looked as if he wanted to end matters as he began to load up even more with his shots after his embarrassing mouthpiece incident. Finally, he nailed Ingleby with a huge right hand to put him down for the count.
After the fight, Price said “He was a tough nut. I was hitting him with punches that people usually go off with in the amateurs, and I was quite surprised. He was a tough fighter.”
Overall, I was really disappointed in Price. Based on how mediocre he looked against the journeyman Ingleby, and the way that Price was hurt by a right hand from him in the 3rd, I don’t see Price ever being a factor on the world scene or the on the local level. Price possibly could if his management can teach him how to use his reach and to fight entirely on the outside, but I’m skeptical that they can.
Price needs to be more flexible, extend his punches all the way and not fight like a small fighter at close range. Price also needs to clinch more often instead of just covering up and letting his opponents tee off on him. He probably needs to train with someone like Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko if he’s to ever have any hope of being a factor in the heavyweight division.
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