By Scott Gilfoid: WBO European heavyweight champion Christian Hammer (21-4, 12 KOs) may have finished the career of former British/Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price (21-4, 18 KOs) in stopping him in the 7th round on Friday night at the Olympian in London, England. Hammer teed off a badly out of shape 33-year-old Price until the referee Phil Edwards halted the fight with him still on his feet. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:22 of round 7.
Price was totally gassed out from the 4th round. Price knocked Hammer down in round five with a right uppercut to the head. However, Price exhausted himself with the energy he expended trying to get the knockout.
It was clear that Price had nothing left in the tank at the end of round 6 when he bent over against the ropes and took a free right hand shot from Hammer. Price was so tired that he couldn’t even defend himself. After the round ended, Hammer hit Price with a late shot. Price followed up with a right of his own, but it looked like it was thrown more out of disgust with his own performance during that round rather than in retaliation. Price looked disgusted with himself.
There was nothing wrong with Price’s punching power. He looked very strong when he was throwing his right hands. What he didn’t have was the stamina for him to fight hard long enough to put Hammer away. The thing is, Hammer looked badly out of shape at 264lbs. He was there to be beaten by Price if he’d been able to put his punches together to finish off. It’s just that he didn’t have the stamina to do anything.
Price got the better of Hammer in rounds one through four. Hammer appeared to hurt Price in round 3 with a right uppercut to the head, but it was still a Price round. He got the better of the action.
What’s hard to understand was how out of shape Price looked in the fight. He weighed 275lbs at the weigh-in on Friday, which is 30 pounds heavier than what he used to weigh during his best years. Price had been in the 270s since coming back from his 2nd round knockout loss to Erkan Teper in 2015.
It’s unclear why Price didn’t take the weight off to get back to the 240s, because that was clearly his best weight for him. Was it a lack of discipline or did Price really believe that he fights better in the 270s. After tonight, it’s painfully obvious that Price doesn’t have the conditioning for him to be fighting in the 270s. If Price is going to continue his boxing career, then he’s going to need to get his weight back down to the 240s and hope that he can turn things around. Personally, I don’t see Price having the chin or the gas tank for him to come back from this loss.
Hammer is going to have problems if he winds up getting a title shot against the likes of Joseph Parker or Anthony Joshua. The only reason Hammer won tonight was because of how out of shape Price was. Hammer was totally gassed as well after three rounds. The only reason he won the fight was because Price was even more gassed.
Hammer was able to fall back on his boxing skills to ride out the rough moments in the fight when he was knocked down in round 5. Price should have been able to finish off Hammer at the start of the 6th round, but his legs were completely gone. You could see that with Price having to stand straight up and unable to bend his knees enough to muster the power that he needed in his punches to finish off the tired and hurt looking Hammer.
What was really telling about Price being finished in the 6th was how he went to the ropes continuously and just covered up while an exhausted looking Hammer teed off on him with weak slapping shots. Hammer had nothing on his punches, but he was able to get his shots off because Price was just covering up like a sparring partner.
I’m just surprised that Price could come into such an important fight like this in such woeful physical condition. Surely, Price had an idea of what kind of condition he was in from his sparring sessions. They must have terrible to watch if this is all Price could do tonight. I’m surprised that Price went through with the fight, because he looked like he hadn’t trained at all.
With the defeat, Price can forge about getting a shot against one of the heavyweight champions. He came into the Hammer fight with a #5 ranking with the World Boxing Organization. That ranking would have put him in position to challenge WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker or to fight IBF champion Anthony Joshua in the future. That’s where the big money would have come in for Price if he could have gotten a title shot.
I think Price needs to retire from boxing, because he’s not going to be able to beat any of the decent heavyweights in the division. Price would have likely lost to even weaker heavyweights like Hughie Fury if he’d been in the ring with him tonight. He just doesn’t have the stamina to compete against the best heavyweights in the contender.
I don’t know how Price could have gone through an entire training camp and not taken off the weight that he’d put on. That tells me that he lacks motivation. Hammer isn’t that great of a heavyweight. This is someone that Price should have been able to beat if he was on his game.
The fact that he couldn’t beat him suggests that the talent just isn’t there for Price to do anything. If this was someone like Deontay Wilder in the ring with Price tonight, I think he would have been knocked out in the 1st round by him. Price would have been smashed. He just doesn’t have the chin or the stamina to be in with the best.
If Price doesn’t retire after this loss, I’ll be shocked. It was Price’s fourth knockout loss since 2013. Price was previously knocked out twice by the light hitting Tony Thompson in 2013, and by an out of shape looking Erkan Teper in 2015. Those were not great fighters and not huge punchers.
Heck, Hammer recently beat Teper last year by a 12 round split decision. When I saw that fight, I realized that Price would likely lost to Hammer as well. It’s not that Hammer is a big puncher. It’s that he would stick around in the fight long enough to wear Price down and knock him out, which is what he did tonight. I think I speak for a lot of boxing fans when I say that Price should retire from the sport. He had his 15 minutes of fame earlier in his career, but he now looks like he’s completely done at 33.