By Michael Byrne: David Price is continuing his offshore comeback with an 8-round contest against Ondrej Pala in the Velodrom, Berlin on March 29th. This is a big gamble. Pala was stopped in three rounds by Derek Chisora last time out, but that doesn’t tell the tale of the fight. The stoppage was a strange one, as Pala stumbled face-first into the corner with his arms over the ropes, leaving Chisora free to tee-off against the back of the head of a fighter unable to protect himself.
The referee was left with no choice but to wave it off. Before this point, though, Pala had been willing to trade with Chisora, and appeared to have Chisora buzzed by big hooks to the chin on more than one occasion. He hits hard, he comes forwards, and he can take punishment: is this what Price needs right now?
When Price was beaten by Thompson for the second time, he was deemed as ‘exposed’, and received a lot of criticism for having been matched too soft and for relying on nothing but his power. Well, fair play to Price, he’s getting back in the ring for a high-risk, low-reward fight against Pala, and he’s keen to try and prove he’s got the potential to get on top. Thompson was too big of a step up from the domestic fossils Price had previously been fighting; the likes of Audley Harrison and Matt Skelton. Thompson proved he still had a lot left in the tank, and even gave Kubrat Pulev a decent fight after beating Price. Price has since beaten 12-9-1 Istvan Ruzsinszky in his first comeback fight, and is taking a big step up against Pala. If he wins, we’ll learn a little bit about him and we’ll see he has some desire. If he loses, he’s going to struggle to stay in the game.
Hopefully training with Tommy Brooks has helped Price to learn how the professional game works: to learn how to fight for (in this case) eight three-minute rounds; to learn how to fight on the inside; to learn what to do if you’re in trouble, etc. He was a victim of the British amateur-hype system, but he has based himself with Sauerland in an obvious attempt to escape this, and not to become another Fraudley A-Farce Harrison. That’s a good sign. I’m looking forward to the fight, and I wish Price all the best, both on 29th March and in the future.
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