By Mark Havey: For a lot of boxing writers around the world it seemed a mismatch and they were certain of it. Tony Thompson would be whipped out by the hard hitting mountain. As a quiet and humble man, David Price had gained a lot of fans. His unbelievable power earned him even more.
Even certain American writers including those at Boxingnews24, refused to support their man. They called Tony Thompson an old man and echoed the thoughts of others, that this was a mismatch. I’m sure their articles will change dramatically.
The Echo Arena was buzzing with thousands of fans. David Price had seemed unbeatable and was on the right path for a title shot in the near future. Fans in Britain felt that David Price was the hardest puncher in the world and would simply knockout anyone he hit, and it would take just minutes to do it. To be fair Price was the better fighter. A right hook in round 2 sent him crashing down with a look of shock evident on the faces of the audience. The punch wasn’t particularly impressive but came from a blind side. As David Price said afterwards, “It’s the punches you don’t see that hurt you”. It was in fact a lucky punch. I have heard people say in the past that there is no luck in boxing, which is outright ridiculous as every aspect of life has elements of luck. If you throw a punch with your eyes closed and knock someone out, that’s luck. In fact not only were Thompson’s eyes closed but he wasn’t even facing Price when he launched the punch.
However lucky Thompson was to get the win, I’m certainly happy he did, and I’m British. That’s not me being unpatriotic. It’s crucial to keep your integrity as a writer however easy it is to become biased. Nationality shouldn’t come into opinions.
I wouldn’t say that this puts Tony Thompson back in title contention, but it’s a huge statement. There will be writers out there now saying that they called this, but they didn’t. and if they did they remained very quiet. Others will say this proves David Price has been over rated, it doesn’t. All this proves is that none of us know as much about boxing as we like to pretend. Boxing is a very unpredictable sport and one punch can change a fight. It takes guys like Tony Thompson to remind us that there are no boxing experts.
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