By Jim Dower: Unbeaten British heavyweight champion David Price (14-0, 12 KO’s) pretty much put Audley Harrison (28-6, 21 KO’s) out of his misery on Saturday night in stopping him in the 1st round at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom. Harrison, 40, hasn’t announced his retirement yet, but this loss will be very difficult for him to come back from.

Like in his loss to David Haye in 2010, Harrison froze up and failed to let his hands go in the first minute of action against the 6’8″ Price. This allowed Price to be the first one to land and once he did with his right hand, it sent Harrison reeling to the ropes where he was near helpless.

Price then rushed in and landed a half dozen shots to the head and body, sending Harrison down on the canvas. The fight was halted by referee Howard John Foster at 1:22 of the round. Audley knew that for him to win this fight he had to be the one that landed first because if he allowed Price to land his shots he’d have little chance of surviving. But instead of taking advantage of his own power and his superior hand speed, Audley waited on Price to be the first one to land and that essentially gave the fight away because Price was able to hurt Harrison with the first real punch that he landed. Price landed some jabs but the right hand was the one that hurt Harrison.

After the fight was stopped, Audlely got slowly back to his feet, blood leaking from his nose and a shocked look on his face as if he didn’t realize what had just happened to him. He had blown his chance, and he must have been thinking about that.

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In other action on the card, 45-year-old former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Matt Skelton (28-6, 23 KO’s) stopped Jakov Gospic (11-5, 9 KO’s) in the 2nd round in a fight where Gospic suffered a cut over his left eye from a head clash with Skelton. In the 2nd round, Skelton knocked Gospic down.

Other boxing results on the card:

Kevin Satchell TKO 6 Chris Edward
Jon Lewis Dickinson UD 12 Shane McPhilbin