By Scott Gilfoid: Lennox Lewis worked with British heavyweight David Price 15-1, 13 KO’s) a lot in his recent training camp to help him get ready for his fight against American Tony Thompson (37-3, 25 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. Lewis thinks the time that he put in with helping the 6’8” Price was valuable time for the 29-year-old fighter, as he thinks it’s going to improve his game.
Lewis said as quoted by ESPN “As a past heavyweight champion, I know a lot of things he [Price] needs to do, and working with me has upped his game a lot more.”
Gosh, I sure hope Lennox is right for Price’s sake, because if he’s the same fighter that he was last February then he’s in a world of hurt this Saturday. Thompson had Price flopping around like a big fish on the canvas last February, knocking him out with a right hand to the head.
Price kept falling down each time he would try to get back up initially, and when he did eventually get back to his feet, he looked dizzy as he swayed back and forth.
I just don’t know about Price really improving any. I mean, I thought he looked pretty good against Thompson until he got hit. In the fights that he’s lost in the past, Price always has looked good. His problem is that when he got hit hard in fights against Roberto Cammarelle, Bermane Stiverne and Thompson, he couldn’t handle it.
Looking good is fine, but if Price can’t handle a big shot without being staggered or dropped, then what’s the point?
I don’t see Lewis as making any real difference to Price’s game. The guy is 29-years-old, and his problem is his chin more so than his game. I don’t think Price can do much about his chin.
Price has weaknesses in his game that I doubt Lewis can ever hope to change, such as his lack of flexibility, his jabbing from too close, his habit of throwing a lot of uppercuts from too far away, his tendency to throw a lot of body shots that leave his head wide open. Price has been fighting like that for years, and Lewis isn’t going to be able to change that.
Price might come out cautious in the 1st round or 2, fighting like he’s walking on eggshells, but by the 3rd round, he’ll revert back to the same fighter he was in the past and start leaving himself open for big shots from Thompson. I don’t think Price will have made any changes with his jab. He’ll still be WAY too close when he throws them, as if he doesn’t have the flexibility to jab from the full distance that his wingspan would allow him.
If you compare the distance that the 6’6” Wladimir Klitschko throws his jab from and the distance that the even taller 6’8” Price throws his jab, I’d bet that Price is at least 12 inches closer to his opponent when throwing his jabs. I don’t know why he does that, and all I can think of is he lacks the flexibility in his upper body to throw jabs from far away. What this means though is that Price is going to be close enough to Thompson to get hit all night long no matter what he does.
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