By Jim Slattengren: In looking at heavyweight David Price (1-0, 1 KOs) fight rather poorly in defeating journeyman I find myself thinking that Price perhaps has too many flaws to ever amount to anything on the pro level. A fighter with as many defeats as David Ingleby (6-25-1, 4 KOs) has on his record shouldn’t have been able to fight so competitively with Price, a bronze medalist at the 2008 Olympics. And it wasn’t just this alone. Price really looked bad against Ingleby, in particular when Price was getting nailed with shots to the head.
I didn’t like the look in his eyes each time he’d get hit, like he would freeze a second after the punch landed, as if his brainwaves had blanked out all of a sudden. Price had his problems in the 2008 Olympics when facing the heavy puncher Roberto Cammerelle, who took Price out with some big shots.
The loss was partially excusable because the Italian super heavyweight Cammerlle would eventually win the Gold medal in the Olympics and he did have an awful lot of power in his right hand. However, it was troubling to see Price getting hit with big shots from a fighter like Ingleby last Saturday night, and not looking good when getting drilled in the head by him in the 3rd.
This guy should have been knocked out in the 1st round if Price was on his game or if he had some worthwhile skills. Instead, Ingleby was able to hit Price with shots in each of the three rounds, winding up and hitting him easily. Price had a peculiar way of just stopping what he was doing and covering up with his gloves.
He looked awfully timid when doing this, like a fighter that didn’t know his own strength. Price was almost twice the size of Ingelby, yet he fought in close, trading shots with him like a much smaller fighter. Right now, I don’t know how much value Price has as a prospect.
He’s like a diamond in the rough, I suppose, but he’s a really flawed diamond and it’s one that might take too much energy to get him to the next level. I can see him being a good sparring partner for someone, but beyond that he has a tremendous amount of flaws that I see as being hard to get beyond.
I really am not very confident about his ability to take a big shot, and that for me is the clincher in estimating his worth as a heavyweight. If his chin is poor, he’s going to have permanent problems at the pro level. Some of his problems can be fixed by teaching Price to clinch instead of just standing there like a dolt covering up and absorbing punishment.
He needs to learn how to use his reach, to jab from a distance instead of in close, and to throw power shots from a distance instead of within punching range of his opponent. The 6’8” Price fights more like a fighter 5’11” rather someone of his huge size.
I frankly don’t have a lot of trust that his management team is going to be able to teach him how to use his size and fight big. Haye, 6’2”, is a small heavyweight, who perhaps is much better suited for the cruiserweight division than at heavyweight.
If he is the one that is supposed to teach Price how to use his size, then I think Price needs to consider joining up with Tyson Fury’s team, because I don’t see Price as getting the training needed to make it in the pro ranks.
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