By Scott Gilfoid: Heavily hyped heavyweight David Price (15-1, 13 KO’s) tried to bum rush 41-year-old Tony Thompson (37-3, 25 KO’s) last February like Price had done against many of his previous God awful opponents and it didn’t work out too well with Price getting flattened in the 2nd round in an embarrassing knockout loss in front of his own British boxing fans in Liverpool, UK.
Now, the 29-year-old Price is going to be fighting Thompson again in Liverpool, this time on July 6th. The 6’8” Price has the hometown advantage again, but he and his trainer are saying they’re going to use a more conservative approach to the fight to keep from leaving openings that the 6’5” southpaw Thompson can take advantage of.
Franny Smith, the trainer for Price, said to Sky Sports: “You seen what happened, it was obviously a mistake. He went for him too much I think early on…I’m sure the second time round we’ll stick to a more regimented game-plan and I’m sure we’ll get the win.”
I honestly don’t see much of what Price did wrong in the fight. I mean, he wasn’t really opening up in a big way at any point in the fight. Price didn’t really open up on Thompson in either round like he had against the mediocre opposition he’d been facing.
The difference here is that Thompson was able to cover up wait out Price’s occasional flurries. The poor 3rd tier fighter that Price had been facing up until then couldn’t do that. These guys were folding up immediately as soon as Price threw a brief flurry and you just knew that he was going to be in trouble as soon as his promoter Frank Maloney put him in with a live opponent. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened with Price getting stretched by Thompson when Price was stepped up a class.
I don’t see any difference with Price in the rematch whether he plays it safe or not. He’s still going to have to get hit by Thompson and that’s where the problem is. Price’s chin is so fragile that he’s likely going to get brained at some point by Thompson’s right hooks to the head. Thompson may not punch hard but he hits hard enough to get a fighter like Price out of there.
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