By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten 28-year-old heavyweight prospect David Price (12-0, 10 KO’s) is a heavy favorite not only to defeat Sam Sexton (15-2, 6 KO’s) this Saturday night but also stop him early in their fight for the vacant British heavyweight title at the Aintree Equestrian Centre, in Liverpool, UK.

For some reason the soon to be 29-year-old Price really cares about devoting time to going after the domestic level British strap, and then defending it a couple of times before he moves up to the European level. Price will likely eat up two years of his career with the British and European level fights before he even gets to the World level. It doesn’t sound too smart, but perhaps there’s some worry there about how Price’s sometimes fragile chin will hold up under the strain of being tagged by powerful heavyweights with talent rather than the soft punching domestic level variety.

Sexton, 27, probably doesn’t have a chance in this fight unless he closes his eyes and swings for the fences in the early rounds. I say the early rounds because if he tries to wait the 6’8″ Price out for the later rounds, he’ll not make it that far. Sexton looked terrible in his two losses to Dereck Chisora, and didn’t look much better in his two fights with Martin Rogan.

I thought he should have been stopped in the Rogan fight when he turned his back on Rogan after getting hurt. The referee then wasted time stopping the action and scolding Rogan for trying to nail Sexton when his back was turned, which was ridiculous given that Sexton was the one that turned his backside to Rogan in almost a surrender movement. I thought Rogan would have stopped Sexton had the referee not jumped in at that exact moment.

Price has to look good in this fight for boxing fans to take him serious as a potential future contender. If Sexton staggers him or puts him down, then you can pretty much write off Price as being any kind of potential contender. He had problems taking big shots in the amateur ranks in losses to Roberto Cammarelle, and Bermane Stivene. Sexton can’t punch like those guys can, but he can punch hard enough to stretch Price if he comes out gunning and goes for his head. Sexton has to throw nothing but head shots and he’s got to do it with knockout intentions. He can’t take it easy on Price because he won’t last more than a round at best unless he shoots for that tender chin.