By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight David Price has agreed to an offer to face former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker unification match card on March 31st at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Povetkin vs. Price would be a SICK mismatch between heavyweights at different career levels.
Povetkin vs. Price still ISN’T a done deal. The 6’8” Price has agreed to fight Povetkin, but it’ll be up Povetkin and his promoter whether they want to take the fight with the struggling Liverpool native.
The 34-year-old Price has been getting knocked out left and right since 2013, suffering 4 stoppage losses between 2013 and 2017.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom said on Tuesday that he was going to offer the Povetkin fight to Price and Dereck Chisora. Price agreed straightaway to the fight with the 38-year-old Povetkin without batting an eye. Price’s career is nowhere right now with him having suffered recent knockout defeats to Tony Thompson (x 2), Christian Hammer and Erkan Teper.
If the 34-year-old Chisora agrees to the Povetkin fight too, it’ll give the Russian and his promoter another option for the Joshua vs. Parker card. It would look better for Povetkin to be seen beating a fringe level world heavyweight contender than it would be for him to face Price, who is little more than a journeyman level fighter at this stage in his career. If the idea is for Povetkin to impress the British boxing public to get them excited about seeing him fight Joshua in the end of 2018, then beating Chisora would be the better way to do it.
“It’s a no-brainer with a massive upside for me. Everything to gain, so I just agreed straight away,” Price said to skysports.com. “I don’t think the fight is actually made, but I’ve agreed to take the fight and if it can happen, brilliant. We’ve told Eddie yes. Now we’re just waiting on the other side, which I can’t see it being a problem if he wants to fight on the show,” said Price in talking about Povetkin.
Price sounds very NAÏVE here. If Price doesn’t understand why it would be a problem for Povetkin to face him, then he’s in the dark. There’s absolutely nothing for Povetkin to gain by fighting Price at this point in his career. The guy that Povetkin recently beat in his last fight, Christian Hammer, defeated him by a 7th round knockout last year in February 2017. Price can make excuses for the loss to Hammer by saying he was overweight and sluggish, but the fact remains he was still beaten by him. If Povetkin agrees to fight Price, the only thing he can accomplish by fighting him is to try and knock him out faster than Hammer did. Where’s the gain from that?
Frankly, I’d be very surprised if Povetkin agrees to fight Price. The fight would have made sense if it was made between 2009 and 2012, when Price was still undefeated and fighting at a high level, but it’s pointless for it to be made now. Price would be a good opponent for Povetkin if he were coming off of disappointing loss like the one he experienced against Wladimir Klitschko in October 2013. Povetkin has bounced back from that loss, winning his last 7 fights.
“I would be a heavy underdog, understandably so, but I still believe there’s a twist to come in my story,” said Price about Povetkin.
Of course, Price would be the underdog against Povetkin. I doubt that there would be any twists to the story, as Price says. Povetkin would have a huge advantage over Price in boxing skills and in the chin department. Price could take a decent head shot without getting knocked out, he might have a chance of beating Povetkin. I still think Price would win. He doesn’t use his reach by fighting on the outside the way Wladimir did in his win over Povetkin. Price has horrible stamina, and he doesn’t seem to know when to clinch. Wladimir was able to hide his chin problem by using his jab and clinching frequently in his win over Povetkin. Price would probably let Povetkin walk him down and get in close range to land his bread and butter punch, his left hook.
The one thing that Price would have working in his favor against the Russian Povetkin is he has problems against bigger heavyweights. Povetkin struggled against Wladimir, Mariusz Wach, Carlos Takam and Hammer. Moreover, Povetkin isn’t nearly as dominating now as he was between 2014 and 2016.
Povetkin has aged, and he’s not the same guy he was during those years. Povetkin has been forced to go the full 12 round distance in his last 2 fights against Andriy Rudenko and Christian Hammer. It’s not an accident that Povetkin couldn’t knock those guys out. He’s not looking as powerful as he once was, and he’s unable to work as hard as he did 2 to 3 years ago.
Povetkin looks weaker with his punches. The power that Povetkin had in the past seems to have abandoned him all of a sudden. Price would have a chance of winning due to Povetkin’s advanced age.
Unfortunately, Price has shown no ability to take a decent head shot in recent years without hitting the deck hard. As such, I see Povetkin knocking Price out in 2 or 3 rounds. But this is probably neither here nor there, because I doubt that Povetkin will agree to fight Price. I think Povetkin is going to want to face someone that can increase his standing in the boxing world, and that’s Chisora if he agrees to the fight.
Chisora lost his last fight to Agit Kabayel. He might not want to be rushed into an even more difficult fight against Povetkin before he’s fully ready. Another loss for Chisora would be devastating to his career. He’s been beaten in the past by Kabayel, David Haye, Tyson Fury (x 2), Vitali Klitschko, Kurbrat Pulev and Robert Helenius. If Chisora loses to Povetkin in March, he’d be heading towards journeyman status, which you can argue he already is at this point. I see Chisora as a high level journeyman in the same way Michael Sprott was years ago.