David Price wants Parker, then Joshua

By Boxing News - 09/30/2016 - Comments

price1

By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight David Price (20-3, 17 KOs) is hoping to get a fight against unbeaten IBF mandatory challenger Joseph Parker (20-0, 17 KOs) after Price takes care of business this Saturday night against 42-yer-old Ivica Perkovic (22-30, 17 KOs) in their six-round fight this Saturday night in Germany.

Price-Perkovic will be on the undercard of the Juergen Braehmer vs. Nathan Cleverly card. Price wants to beat Perkovic, and then fight the 24-year-old Parker next on November 26 to earn a title shot against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. It’s possible that Price could get Parker if he doesn’t fight Joshua on November 26, but that’s a big IF, because there’s a chance that fight could happen if Joshua doesn’t fight Wlaimir Klitschko next for Tyson Fury’s WBA/WBO heavyweight titles if they get quickly stripped from him by the two sanctioning bodies. With Friday’s news of Fury allegedly testing positive for cocaine in VADA’s testing of him on September 22, he could wind up getting stripped of his titles.

If that happens, then Wladimir may face Joshua next on November 26 or in December. That would open up Parker for a fight against Price, which is what he badly wants. The 33-year-old Price sees Parker as the fastest route to get to Joshua. All Price needs to do is whip Parker and he’ll have the Joshua fight. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! I don’t think Price has a chance in beating Parker, but you can’t blame him for at least wanting to try.

“If AJ doesn’t fight Parker next then we’re fighting Parker on the bill on November 26. That’s a big fight,” said Dave Coldwell to skysports.com about his fighter Price. “That’ll be a six-rounder [Price vs. Perkovic] then hopefully it’s Parker. Price is willing to fight the No 1 contender for a world title. He needs it before he has a fight against someone like Parker.”

I think it’s a dumb idea for Price to go from fighting Perkovic to fighting Parker. I honestly don’t see the Price vs. Parker fight happening, but if it does, it was a stupid idea for Price to fight Perkovic on Saturday night instead of a quality opponent. Let’s be real; the 42-year-old Perkovic is not a good fight to prepare the 6’8” Price fo a dangerous fight against Parker. If Price wanted to get ready for a fight against Parker, then he at least should have fought someone like Carlos Takam, Erkan Teper, Luis Ortiz, or Andy Ruiz Jr. Unfortunately, I don’t see Price having the boxing skills or the chin to beat any of those guys.

I won’t be surprised in the least if Perkovic knocks Price the spark out on Saturday. Perkovic has a little bit of power. I’ve seen him land some big shots in his fights. I think it would be surprising news in the boxing world if Perkovic finished off Price. I’m just saying. I didn’t like the way Price froze and retreated to the ropes in his last fight against little known Vaclav Pejsar last May. Price was met with some early resistance in the 1st round after the 34-year-old Pejsar came out headhunting. Price then backed up against the ropes and took a scorching right hand that snapped his head sideways. It was pretty sad to see, because the 6’1 /2” Pejsar shouldn’t have been able to do that considering how over-matched he was talent-wise and size-wise.

“If AJ fights Parker himself then that scuppers us fighting Parker,” said Coldwell. “Price wants to fight world-level fighters and he wants to fight the mandatory challenger for a world title to earn the right to face AJ.”

Even if this plays out perfectly with Price getting the fight against the 6’4” Parker, I can’t see him beating him. The only way Price beats Parker is if he comes out lightning fast in the 1st round and nails him with a big right hand to either stun him or knock him out. If Price does that, then he might beat Parker.

Unfortunately, Price has been a slow starter in his fights the last few years, and his slow starts make it easy on his opponents to nail him with big shots in the 1at round. Price was knocked out early in the 2nd round by Erkan Teper in 2015, in the 2nd round by Tony Thompson in February 2013, and in the 5th round by Thompson in their rematch in July of the same year. Price is too slow of a starter and punch resistance too weak for him to hang for long against a big puncher like Parker in my view.

I don’t like the Parker-Price match-up. Price’s promoters at Sauerland Events needs to keep matching him against weak opposition like Perkovic until the fight against Joshua falls into his lap.

I think Price can still get the fight against Joshua by facing awful opposition without him having to take a risky fight against someone that will clearly knock him out quickly like Parker will. If this was 2012 and Price was still young and fighting at a high level, I would say ‘go for it. Take on Joshua. He’s only 20-years-old.’ But now Price is 34, no longer the fighter he was in 2012, and Parker is 24 and well-seasoned. I think the fight is coming at the wrong time for Price. He should have pushed for it years ago rather than at this time. Price needs to be smart. He’ll still get the Joshua fight by beating guys like Perkovich one after another. He just needs to be patient.

YouTube video