Price stops Pejsar; Smith beats Grafka- results

By Boxing News - 05/29/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price (20-3, 17 KOs) got back to his winning ways in blowing out a no-hoper in Vaclaev Pejsar (903, 8 KOs) in the 2nd round of a scheduled eight round fight on the undercard of the Tony Bellew vs. Ilunga Makabu fight card on Sunday night at the Goodison Park Stadium in Liverpool, UK.

The 6’8” Price knocked the 31-year-old Pejsar down twice in the fight in flattening him in the 1st and 2nd round. The fight was stopped after the second knockdown of the contest. The official time of the stoppage was 1:30 of the 2nd round.

For the 32-year-old Price, it was his fight since he was knocked out in 2 rounds by Erkan Teper last July. Teper has since been suspended after testing positive for a banned substance. Price feels vindicated after learning of the positive test. However, Price still has a lot to prove. His knockout loss to Teper wasn’t his only loss of his career that he has to worry about.

Price was also twice stopped by Tony Thompson in 2013. With the way that Teper blasted Price out so quickly last year, II think the odds of Price being able to beat any of the top 10 contenders in the heavyweight division are pretty slim. I’m not even talking about the world champions, because I don’t see Price as having any chance against any of them. Price has got a huge uphill climb ahead of him for him to rebuild his shattered career. I’m just saying.

Other boxing results on tonight’s Goodison Park card:

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Former two-time world title challenger Paul Smith (37-6, 21 KOs) defeated journeyman Bartlomiej Grafka (17-21-3, 8 KOs) by a six-round decision. The final score was 59-55.
Smith, 33, came into the fight having lost two out of his last three fights. This was Smith’s second straight win.

In his last fight, Smith beat journeyman Bronislav Kubin (15-18-2). It’s unclear why Smith’s handlers have decided to match him against such weak opposition after his losses to Arthur Abraham (x 2) and Andre Ward. I mean, losing to those guys shouldn’t have been bad enough defeats for Smith’s career to be pushed back to the infancy, which is what it appears that we’re seeing with him facing guys that you would see a prospect fighting at the start of their careers.

It’s confusing and quite sad to see Smith reduced to fighting journeyman at this level. Smith is capable of beating contenders, and it’s a waste of his time to be put in with fodder at his age.