Price wants Parker, Breazeale or Molina for Joshua card

By Boxing News - 08/27/2016 - Comments

Image: Price wants Parker, Breazeale or Molina for Joshua card

By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight David Price (20-3, 17 KOs) and his trainer Dave Coldwell are highly ambitious for the Anthony Joshua undercard on November 26 in wanting the likes of Joseph Parker, Dominic Breazeale (17-1, 15 KOs) or Eric Molina as an opponent.

Price, 33, is hoping that with a win over one of the above mentioned fighters, he’ll be able to get a title shot against Joshua. However, it might take a win over someone better than Breazeale or Molina for the 6’8” Price to get a shot against Joshua.

It’s not as if Breazeale and Molina have been getting great results with their careers lately. If Price could beat the young 24-year-old Joseph Parker on November 26, it would be a HUGE win for him, and obviously that would open the door for a title shot against Joshua.

The problem is Price doesn’t appear to have the chin, youth or talent to stand up to the big shots from a guy like Parker. We’re talking heavyweight that on different levels at this point. Parker is going up, and Price’s career is in a downward spiral.

“If Pricey gets a big win under his belt then Eddie is saying he’ll look at doing the fight. I’ve already said someone like Dominic Breazeale we’d be happy with. We watched Joshua v Breazeale live and I said to Pricey straight away that it’d be a fight that I’d love,” said Coldwell to skysports.com. “Hopefully we have a big fight in November on the Joshua bill – Parker, Breazeale or even Eric Molina.”

I have my doubts that Price could beat Breazeale. As flawed as Breazeale is as a fighter, Price SHOULD be able to beat him, but I don’t think he can. Breazeale showed in his recent loss to Joshua last June that he has excellent chin. He took some major shots in that fight and kept standing in front of Joshua like a sparring partner.

Yeah, Breazeale ended up getting dropped twice in the 7th and knocked out, but he took a TON of punishment before he went down. If Breazeale is able to take that kind of a beating, then I think he could handle everything that Price could dish out and maybe knock him out to finish off his dreams of fighting Joshua.

I’m not so sure this would be the best time for Breazeale to fight Price, given that he’s coming off such a horrendous beating. Price obviously has a chin issue, but he can still punch, and Breazeale doesn’t throw a lot of punches. I mean, I thought Breazeale got a very questionable 10 round decision win over journeyman Fred Kassi last year in September 2015.

That was not impressive stuff from Breazeale, believe me. Breazeale also looked dreadful in his fight against 43-year-old Amir Mansour last January in getting a fifth round injury stoppage. Mansour knocked Breazeale down in the 3rd round and appeared to be on his way to beating him when he suffered an injury in the 5th that caused him not to come out for round six.

My guess is that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn won’t be impressed enough with a Price win over Breazeale or Eric Molina for him to let him be used as an opponent for Joshua in 2017. Price has got to do better than that. Molina was knocked out in the 9th round by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder last year in a one-sided fight.

Molina came back from that loss to beat 40-year-old former two division world champion Tomas Adamek and Rodricka Ray, but those wins don’t mean anything. Those aren’t major players in the heavyweight division. A win over Molina and even Breazeale would be just the start of where Price needs to be for him to get a title shot against Joshua in my opinion.

I think Price needs to beat someone like Luis Ortiz and/or Kubrat Pulev in addition to beating Breazeale and Molina for him to get a title shot against Joshua. I know it would be a long haul for Price to endure before he finally gets his dream title shot, but at least he’d have earned it. Of course, if Price can fight and beat Joseph Parker on November 26 on Joshua’s undercard, then I think that would do it for him in getting him the fight he wants.

I just don’t see Price as having the talent, the chin or the youth to hang with Parker. This is a very, very good heavyweight with major power. Parker can do it all, and he’s getting better with each fight. The guy has learned so much from guys like Wladimir Klitschko and other heavyweights in the division.

Parker has so many different looks that he can give you, and I think it would be physically impossible for Price to beat a guy like that. But if Price wants a title shot against Joshua, then a fight against Parker gives him the quickest path to making that happen if he can only beat him.

I think Breazeale would jump at the chance of fighting Price if the fight were offered to him. I just don’t know that a win over Breazeale would lead to a title shot against Joshua. Price’s promoters at Sauerland Events needs to check that out first with Hearn before they go through the trouble of getting Breazeale as an opponent for the November card. The last thing they need is to take a potentially dangerous fight like that for nothing. I mean, I don’t see Breazeale as even a good fighter, but I think he can probably beat Price any day of the week.