By Scott Gilfoid: 6’5” American heavyweight Tony Thompson wants to destroy the unbeaten British heavyweight David Price’s big world title hopes when they meet up on February 23rd at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Thompson, 41, knows he’s got a fighter without experience with a history of being vulnerable when getting hit with hard shots to the head, and he’s going to really put it on the 6’8” Price to take him out in front of his own Liverpool fans.
Thompson said “He [Maloney] has made a major mistake in bringing me over because I lost my last fight [against Wladimir Klitschko].”
It’s very true what Thompson says. Maloney obviously saw vulnerability with Thompson in getting drilled out by Wladimir, and he no doubt saw how he was offering up precious little in terms of offense against the 6’6” Wladimir with return fire.
In other words, Thompson was the ideal opponent for a fighter with a history of having been rocked by big punchers in the 29-year-old Price. With Thompson still being ranked in the top 10, it would be a good scalp for Price to add to his collection. However, Thompson doesn’t plan on getting taken apart in his second straight fight, and he’s going to be really coming after Price to test his chin early with all the power that he has in his body.
Thompson can’t afford to suffer another loss, especially a knockout loss to an inexperienced fighter like Price. Thompson wants to stay in the top tier and the only way he can do that is by winning this fight and exposing Price to be just another heavyweight stiff. There’s no question that Thompson has the athletic talent to put Price in his place on February 23rd, and beat the younger heavyweights to that achievement, the ones that Maloney hasn’t been matching against Price.
If you look at how Price was beaten in the past while an amateur, he would struggle when his opponent would meet him in the center of the ring and would go after him with big power shots one after another. Price was good at letting his own shots go, but taking them was the problem. In fights against Bermane Stiverne and Roberto Cammarelle, Price was royally rocked by them when the fighters got into exchanges with them.
Thompson isn’t known as a puncher, but he’s got a mean right hook and straight left hand that he can throw with good power when he sits down on his shots. Price isn’t exactly hard to hit, as we saw in his fights against 45-year-old Matt Skelton and “Big” John McDermott.
Price seems to forget all about his defense when he’s going after his opponents to try and get quick knockouts. We’ve already heard how Price wants to make a statement with the Thompson fight by trying to KO him faster than Wladimir did last year. This means that Price is going to be fighting in a reckless manner as he goes after Thompson to try and get him out quickly.
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