(David Price seen here having a bad day at the office against Erkan Teper) By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight David Price (19-2, 16 KOs) just got a shot in the arm for his career with the news that his previous 2nd round knockout loss to German heavyweight Erkan Teper (14-0, 9 KOs) from last July has been changed to a no contest due to Teper testing positive for a banned substance.
The 6’8” Price is reportedly not happy about Teper testing positive for after the fight. The hard hitting 33-year-old Teper has now been reportedly banned for 2 years from the sport.
Price plans on resuming his career and looking to get a fight for the EBU title. It would mean that he’ll need to face newly crowned EBU champion Robert Helenius for the title, which could prove to be a very difficult fight for the fragile-chinned 32-year-old Price.
Helenius punches every bit as hard as Teper, but without the ability to fight on the inside the way that German does.
“David will definitely want to return to the ring and of course this will put him in a strong position, because they have to re-instate him at the top of the rankings,” Price’s promoter Kalle Sauerland said to skysports.com. “He [Price] will have a mandatory bout at some time next year for this title, if that’s the route that we go down.”
Personally, I think it’s a really dumb idea to put Price in with a puncher like Helenius. Price would be better off facing a shorter heavyweight that he could punch around a little like the 6’0” Chisora. Price needs a confidence booster or two before he starts facing the bigger, more talented heavyweights like Helenius in my view. I mean, I could understand Sauerland throwing Price in the ring with Helenius if he had Deontay Wilder type talent, but the fact of the matter is he doesn’t.
Price’s stoppage losses to Tony Thompson [x 2] and Teper proves that. Yeah, I know Teper tested positive for a banned substance, but I don’t think he was given anymore punching power than he already had by using a banned substance.
Teper has always been a hard puncher from day one, and Price would have likely been knocked out just the same even if Teper had been clean for that fight. Price needs to take on some short guys with mediocre talent like Chisora and Michael Sprott before looking to face decent level competition like Helenius.
“It’s all very frustrating, because at the end of the day, Pricey has lost six months of his career,” Sauerland said. “I’ve always said that David has the tools to go on and do very big things in this sport.”
I wouldn’t get so excited if I was Sauerland about Price’s career, because I think he might end up crying crocodile tears if Price continues to fall apart when matched against decent level competition. There’s no way that Price should have lost to heavyweights like Thompson and Teper if he were any good.
These are guys that you have to beat if you want to be considered an A-level heavyweight. Heck, you’ve got to be able to beat those guys if you want to even be considered a B-level guy, because I rate those fighters as C-level fighters. I think Dillian Whyte, a good B-level guy when healthy, would obliterate Thompson and Teper.
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