By Scott Gilfoid: British/Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price (15-1, 13 KO’s) will be facing 41-year-old Tony Thompson (37-3, 25 KO’s) in a rematch on July 6th at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. Price’s promoter Frank Maloney was able to line up the rematch with the 6’5” Thompson, who made easy work of Price last month in stopping him in the 2nd round in a surprise upset.
Thompson discovered in the fight that Price can dish it out, but he sure can’t take it very well because he hit the deck with one of the first punches that Thompson landed in the fight. It was kind of jarring to see Price flop down on the canvas after getting hit with what looked like a harmless right hand to the head, but then again Price hadn’t been used to getting hit in his 15 previous fights, so it’s perhaps not that surprising that he went down when hit.
What’s surprising is that Thompson agreed to fight Price in the UK again. Thompson had said long and hard that he wasn’t going to fight Price in the UK if he wanted a rematch, and that the money would have to be really, really good for him to bother fighting the 6’8” Price for a second time. But it looks like Price’s promoter gave Thompson a sweet offer of some of that good cash that he couldn’t turn down to fight Price in his home city again.
It’s not like it really matters to Thompson, though. He was completely unruffled in fighting in front of a bunch of screaming Brits last time, and I don’t’ imagine he’ll be bothered in the rematch. Thompson is totally self-contained and loud crowds seem to motivate him more than put him off his game.
If Price’s promoter was thinking clearly, he’d have agreed to let the fight take place in the U.S, where the crowd would likely be incredibly small. I can’t imagine more than a couple hundred fans showing up to see Price-Thompson if they staged the fight in the U.S. because Thompson has no fan base there, and of course American casual boxing fans have no clue who the stiff-legged Price is. The advantage is that there would be no crowd noise, and perhaps Thompson wouldn’t be as motivated as he was last time to knockout Price again.
I wasn’t surprised that Thompson knocked Price out because I saw how Price was stopped in the amateur ranks in his last fight against a quality opponent when Roberto Cammarelle took him out in the Olympics in 2008. Before Thompson, that was the last time that Price had fought anyone with a pulse, and god he made a mess of Price. He left in the ropes looking like a spider with the way he hanging off them, out on his feet.
I think Price is making a HUGE mistake in facing Thompson again because if this wily American southpaw knocks Price out for a second time then you can pretty much kiss off the remainder of Price’s career. At this point there’s nowhere he can go except downward. He’s already domestic level, but there’s nowhere he can go. If you put Price in with Kubrat Pulevl at the European level, he’ll just get knocked out again.
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