David Price faces Erkan Teper this Friday, July 17th in Ludwigsburg, Germany

By Boxing News - 07/11/2015 - Comments

price7(Photo Wende) By Scott Gilfoid: #8 IBF, #11 WBO, #14 WBA heavyweight contender David Price (19-2, 16 KOs) has been slowly rebuilding his career for the past two years since his defeats at the hands of the 40+ Tony Thompson in 2013. After fighting four consecutive lower level opponents, the 32-year-old Price will finally be taking a decent step up in class in facing the 6’5” Erkan Teper (14-0, 9 KOs) this Friday night on July 17th in a battle for the vacant European heavyweight title at the MHP Arena in Ludwigsburg, Germany.

Price is pretty excited about the fight, even though it’s one that he should have taken at least two years ago instead of facing Thompson. The natural progression from going from Audley Harrison and Matt Skelton, the fighters that Price had beaten in back to back fights in 2012, was for Price to fight the likes of Teper, not Thompson.

Price found out the hard way that he didn’t take the fight step up in going from the likes of Skelton and Harrison to facing Thompson.

While the European title is at stake in the Price-Teper fight, a lot more is at stake than that for Price. I hate to say it, but if Price loses this fight, then you’ve got to figure that it’s pretty much over for Price in terms of him being a future world champion. If he was a young pup in his early 20s, then you could maybe think that he could come back from a loss to Teper, but the fact is Price is about to turn 33, and he’s obviously not going to get much better in his pro career. I mean, he’ll always have his punching power, but if he can’t handle a jarring shot to the head without falling over backwards on his backside with his legs flying way over his head, then there’s not much point in moving him towards world title shots.

Price’s promoters at Sauerland Events would be better off keeping him for certain types of fights. Who knows, maybe they could get a rivalry going with Manuel Charr and Price in which they fight each other over and over again for four fights like we’re seeing with WBO 168lb champion Arthur Abraham fighting the Germany based Robert Stieglitz repeatedly for four fights rather than facing the high quality guys at super middleweight like the Dirrell brothers and Gilberto Ramirez.

“I can’t wait to get over there and take that title,” Price said. “I couldn’t be better prepared. I’m fired up and ready to go. All the hard work I’ve done with Franny Smith and my strength and conditioning coach John Noonan has really paid off. It’s been the perfect camp. I’m injury free.”

There’s being in shape for a fight, and there’s being in shape to take a hard punch. While I’m confident that Price is ready to take the fight against Teper, what I’m not so certain about is whether Price can take a shot without going down on the canvas and winding up so hurt that he can’t continue fighting. If that happens, it’s not going to be good for Price’s career. I’m sure Price is going to be ready to take Teper’s head off, but if he can’t accomplish that task in the first two rounds, I see Price losing the fight. He’s got to get to Teper as fast as he can because Teper can punch a little and I doubt that Price is going to be able to take his shots without getting knocked out.



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