Wilder’s sparring sessions with Audley could help him beat David Price

By Boxing News - 08/19/2012 - Comments

Image: Wilder's sparring sessions with Audley could help him beat David PriceBy Scott Gilfoid: Former 2000 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist for Britain Audley Harrison (28-5, 21 KO’s) is getting some very, very valuable sparring with unbeaten heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder (24-0, 24 KO’s) to help the 40-year-old Harrison get ready for his October 13th fight against British heavyweight champion David Price (13-0, 11 KO’s) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.

The 6’7″ Wilder, 26, reportedly be sparring with Harrison for three solid weeks in California to fine tune Harrison’s defense and power to get him past the lanky 6’8″ Price. I think Harrison is going to be 100 percent ready by the time he gets in the ring with Price, because Wilder is a bigger puncher than Price, the faster guy with his hands and feet, and also the much more athletic guy. Wilder moves around the ring like a Gazelle, and it very hard to hit. If Harrison can land his shots against Wilder, then he’ll have no problems dropping bombs on Price, because he’s more stationary, stands straight up, and is really stiff-legged in comparison to Wilder.

My big concern about having Wilder spar with Harrison is that the big British heavyweight could get hurt during the course of the sparring sessions due to Wilder’s huge power, and he could wind up with some concussions. Those obviously could be dangerous for Harrison because he cant go through training camp getting his hand pounded by the young and talented Wilder.

The other thing that potentially bothers me is that Harrison’s confidence could end up getting shattered if Wilder is able to beat him up in sparring for a full three weeks. You don’t want to see Harrison get his confidence undermined by the talented Wilder, and this in turn leads to Harrison going out into the ring like a condemned man against Price on October 13th. Harrison is going to need all the confidence he can get in this fight, because he hasn’t won a really big fight in quite some time.



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