By Scott Gilfoid: If Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn gets his way, British heavyweight David Price (20-3, 17 KOs) will be fighting on the undercard of International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s next fight in November in a final eliminator bout against Joseph Parker.
Price, 33, is very interested in fighting Joshua in November. Hearn says he wants Price to get a big win in a break through fight for him to earn the fight against Joshua. Hearn wants Joshua to be fighting only credible opponents right now for his next fight, and he’s looking at one of the three following opponents for that fight: Bermane Stiverne, Kubrat Pulev and Joseph Parker.
A fight against Parker would seem very unlikely for November, as it’s one that Hearn seems to want to build a little more before making it. However, Parker is Joshua’s IBF mandatory challenger, so Hearn can’t wait too long if he wants Joshua to keep his IBF title.
“We’ve been having some good chats with Parker’s team,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “They like to be active. Parker is still, as Joshua is, a work in progress. They’re happy to fight on the Joshua card in November if he’s not the opponent and one fight we’d be looking at is Parker v Price in a final eliminator. It’s a wonderful fight,” said Hearn.
What I don’t understand is how can Parker be fighting in another eliminator for the Joshua fight when he’s ALREADY the IBF mandatory challenger? Is Hearn trying to make Parker earn the mandatory title shot a second time for the Joshua fight? Someone needs to sit Hearn down and explain to him that Parker is already Joshua’s mandatory.
You can’t force Parker to fight in eliminator fights over and over again in order to get a title shot against Joshua, can you? I do think Parker vs. Price would be an interesting match-up for the undercard of Joshua’s next fight in November. However, I doubt that Price or his promoters at Sauerland Event would be too keen on the idea of him fighting the hard-hitting Parker, even if it does mean that he would have the potential to fight Joshua if he won.
I doubt Price would want any part of fighting Parker. I think Price is just hoping that he can put together some wins over obscure opposition like the guy that he recently beat last May in Vaclav Pejsar and then get ranked high enough to get a title shot against Joshua. I don’t see Price wanting to stick his neck out and fight Parker to actually earn the title shot against Joshua. No way do I see Price wanting to earn the Joshua fight by taking a real risk by facing the unbeaten Parker.
It would be a brave thing for Price to do if he were to take that fight with Parker, but I don’t see it happening. I think Price is just hoping that if he beats enough weak 3rd tier fodder opposition, the Joshua fight will fall into his lap without him having to work for it. In other words, it would be like gravity with the Joshua fight falling down from the sky into Price’s lap without him facing top talents like Parker to earn the title shot.
“Those three [Stiverne, Pulev or Parker] are likely. There are other guys,” said Hearn. “I don’t feel David Price is in the mix just yet – I feel he needs that breakthrough performance but we want him to get one because all these domestic clashes would be great. It won’t be Price for the November clash.
Just by Hearn saying, “I don’t feel David Price is in the mix just yet,” I think it’s giving the 6’8” Price hope that he’ll be getting the fight against Joshua in the near future. At the same time, I don’t think Price is going to change anything with the way he’s being matched up now by facing anyone actually good like Parker.
Hearn’s full comment was that he wants to see Price take on someone like Parker in a “breakthrough performance,” but I suspect that Price won’t bother with paying attention to that part of what Hearn is saying, and will instead focus on him not being “in the mix just yet” part. As such, I see Price continuing to fight guys like Vaclav Pejsar while waiting for the Joshua fight to be given to him without him having to risk his hide fighting anyone good.
It’ll be sad for Price if he never gets the Joshua fight due to him not taking the risky fights that he needs to in order to earn it properly. It’ll be even sadder if Hearn gives Price the fight against Joshua without him earning it properly. That would be really bad, because it would send a message that fighters don’t have to earn their title shots against Joshua by fighting high quality opposition.
Price was knocked out in the 2nd round by Erkan Teper in 2015. Price has since won his last fight against the little known Pejsar last May. Price was knocked out twice by Tony Thompson in 2013. He never avenged those defeats, and it’s likely that if he fought Thompson again, he would be knocked out yet again.
“Parker is going to be in the mix one way or the other. We’re already mapping out the next three fights and it could be Stiverne or Pulev, then Parker and then next summer the big one against a Haye or a Fury,” said Hearn.
Hearn needs to get the Parker fight out of the way sooner rather than later for Joshua. It’ll be a joke if we see Parker fighting Price on Joshua’s next undercard in November rather than fighting him. I don’t think it would be a good fight for Parker, because it’ll be too easy for him to blast Price out. If Parker is going to fight on the Joshua undercard, he needs someone that won’t cave in immediately when he hits them with his first right hand to the head. I think Price would be staggered by the first meaningful punch Parker hits him with.