By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight David Price (15-1, 13 KO’s) is taking a major gamble tonight in facing 41-year-old American Tony Thompson (37-3, 25 KO’s) in a rematch at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. It’s a major gamble because the 29-year-old Price has already been knocked out once by the veteran Thompson last February in 2 rounds, and if he gets stopped again by him tonight then it’s going to really hurt Price’s career.
It’s not that Price would be too old to climb his way back into the top 15, but another knockout loss to Thompson would make a definite statement about Price’s chin and his chances of success in the future in facing heavyweights with any kind of power.
Price didn’t have to make this rematch. He could have moved on like fellow Brit Amir Khan after he was knocked out by Breidis Prescott. Price could have gone back to the drawing board and found some guys that were beatable like the guys that he’d been beating before he fought Thompson.
Price is taking the attitude that the loss was a wake-up call for him not to be so confident in taking his fights, and not overlooking his opponents. He thinks he’ll be better for having been stopped by Thompson. Price said to ESPN “A year down the line, when I have won two or three fights, I will be able to say, ‘I’m glad that happened then.’”
That sounds like wishful thinking on Price’s part. I don’t think it’s a good thing that he was knocked out, and he shouldn’t think it’s a swell thing because the knockout gave a pretty good sign that Price’s chin might be too fragile for him to succeed at this level.
Price should know it himself that this is a bad sign given that this was the first real opponent he’d faced at the pro level since he was stopped in the amateur ranks by Roberto Cammarelle.
If you ignore all the fodder that Price has fought since turning pro in 2009, really what you’re looking at is Price having lost his last two fights because his loss to Camarelle was really the last real fight that Price had against a quality opponent until he stepped inside the ring with Thompson last February. If Price gets knocked out every time he steps it up against good opposition then he’s not going to have much of a career.
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