Price vs. Hammer this Saturday

By Boxing News - 01/30/2017 - Comments

Image: Price vs. Hammer this Saturday

By Jeff Aranow: Heavyweight contender David Price (21-3, 18 KOs) will be hoping to improve his chances of getting a title shot when he faces #12 WBO Christian Hammer (20-4, 11 KOs) this Saturday night on the Renold Quinlan vs. Chris Eubank Jr. card on ITV at the Olympia in London, England.

Price, #6 WBO, #10 IBF, #13 WBA, #14 WBC, cannot afford to lose this fight if he wants to stay in the running for a world title shot against WBO champion Joseph Parker or against IBF champion Anthony Joshua. That’s the big money fight for Price, against Joshua. If Price, 33, can get a fight against Joshua, he’ll be doing really well.

If Price gets whipped by Hammer, I think it might be time for him to consider retirement. Even if Price loses by a close decision, I think retirement would be an option that he would need to think about. A knockout loss for Price would almost certainly be reason enough for him to retire. It would be Price’s fourth knockout loss in the last four years. Price was twice knockout by Tony Thompson and once by Teper.

Thompson isn’t a big puncher, and yet he was able to knock Price out. Hammer isn’t a big puncher either, but he can probably hit as hard as Thompson if not harder. If Hammer can catch Price with one of his hard right hands, he might be able to knock him out. The advantage that Hammer has is he knows that Price has a chin issue, so he’ll be head-hunting from the first round.

Price vs. Hammer is a 50-50 fight in the view of a lot of boxing fans. While it should be a fairly easy fight for the 6’8” Price if he sits down on his punches and goes after Hammer early, he might not be able to get past this German opponent. Hammer has respectable punching power and a decent chin. Hammer also knows full well that Price is vulnerable to power shots.

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Hammer is coming off of a big win over Erkan Teper in his past fight. Hammer took everything that Teper could dish out and he came on strong in the second half of the fight to get a 12 round decision win. Hammer looked like a flawed fighter two years ago when he was stopped by Tyson Fury in the 8th round in 2015.

Hammer has come back from that loss with three straight wins over Sherman Williams, Michael Sprott and Teper. Granted, Sprott and Williams aren’t great fighters, but they were still good wins for Hammer. He showed excellent boxing skills for a big man, and the ability to box when he needed to.

Price has two nothing wins over Ivica Perkovic and Vaclav Pejsar in his last two fights. He’s come back from his 2nd round knockout loss to Teper in 2015. Price feels that he’s improved since his loss to Teper. I don’t think so. I think Price is the same fighter that lost to Teper. The only thing that’s changed is he’s facing dreadful opposition now instead of quality fighters.

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