By Marcus Richardson: Heavyweight David Price (22-5, 18 KOs) will be ready to return to the ring in four months from now on July 27 against an opponent still to be determined in a tune-up fight. Price, 34, says he wants to take a decent level opponent for his July fight, and then move on from there to face a top 15 contender in the heavyweight division.
Price, 6’8”, gained a lot of confidence from his recent fight against Alexander Povetkin last March. Despite losing by a 5th round knockout, Price had Povetkin shook up briefly in the 3rd round after catching him with a big left hook to the head. The punch knocked Povetkin, 38, clear across the ring into the ropes, and the referee subsequently ruled it as a knockdown because of the ropes holding the Russian fighter up.
Price’s next opponent will likely be a journeyman or domestic level guy that won’t give him too many problems. However, Price’s stamina is so poor at this point in his career that he’s vulnerable against anyone that is capable of pushing him hard for a full three minutes. Against Povetkin, Price really didn’t do much other than briefly in round 3.
After expending some energy at the end of the 3rd round in throwing some shots, Price was gassed out and threw no punches to speak of in rounds 4 and 5. That’s why Price was knocked out in the 5th. He was no longer letting his hands go, and Povetkin took over and knocked him out. Any decent journeyman level fighter is going to be able to push Price hard enough to get him tired quickly after a round or two.
“I’ve got July 27 penciled in by my management team so I have something to look forward to straight away, I’m not taking time out and am ready to hit the ground running,” Price said to skysports.com. ”I feel like I’ve really found my mojo. Even though I lost, this could be the catalyst I need and I believe it will be.”
Price can still hit hard. That part of his game hasn’t changed. The thing that has changed is his conditioning. Price gets so tired, and he doesn’t recover quickly. He takes deep breaths in between rounds and he looks like he doesn’t recover fast enough in the 1-minute breaks.
Price recently said he wants to fight for the EBU heavyweight title. The current champion is 25-year-old Agit Kabayel. The German fighter not a big puncher, but he’s capable of fighting hard and moving around the ring. Price will have a hard time against Kabayel if he can’t knock him out, because he’ll force him to fight harder than his body will let him.
”I showed in those four and a half rounds and I now can’t wait to get back in the ring,” Price said.
Price has injuries from the Povetkin fight that still need to heal before he can get back in the ring. Price suffered 42 stitches and a broken nose from the loss to Povetkin. Price really wasn’t hit that much in the fight. It’s just that the shots that Povetkin did hit him with did a lot of damage.