Weights: Price 247, Thompson 262

By Boxing News - 02/22/2013 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight Tony Thompson (36-3, 24 KO’s) looked flabby today in weighing in at a career high of 262 pounds for his fight against unbeaten David Price (15-0, 13 KO’s) for Saturday’s fight at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Price looked solid at 247, and looks like he trained hard for the fight.

I’m not sure what happened to the 41-year-old Thompson, though, because he had a slight pot belly and visible flab hanging of his sides. He looked like he’s been training on the couch with a big barrel of Kentucky Fried Chicken next to him.

For a fight as important as this career-wise for Thompson, you’d think he’d have come in a lot lighter. Thompson needs to be in the low 240s to be fighting at his best weight, and it doesn’t look like he did a lot of cardio for this training camp.

Thompson has been saying the fight is an important one for him because he wants to remain near the top of the division so that he can keep getting big fights, but it doesn’t look like he took his training too seriously.

The Price-Thompson has been seen as a terrible mismatch since the fight was made, but you’ve got to see it as an even worse one now. I want to give my congratulations to Price’s promoter Frank Maloney for spotting the aging Thompson to pick out for Price because this is as much of a sure thing win for Price as his last two fights against 45-year-old Matt Skelton and 41-year-old Audley Harrison. It keeps that streak going of facing 40-year-olds for Price.

I don’t know how Price can get much credit after he stops Thompson because how can you give him credit with Thompson looking in such awful shape?

Price, 29, has the power, speed, height and youth advantage over Thompson. That’s more than enough to stop him in the 1st or 2nd rounds. The only advantage Thompson has is in the area of experience, but that’s not going to help too much in this fight with him lacking power, youth and conditioning.

I’m really, really hoping that Maloney matches Price up with a more youthful fighter in his next bout, preferably someone that can actually still fight because Price is going to be in a world of hurt when he finally faces that can punch and who is younger than 41. Maloney is doing a good job of building Price’s record up with fluff opposition, but he’s not doing him any favors by not preparing him for the cold reality of what he’s going to face when he takes on someone that can dent his questionable chin.



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