By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (34-1, 34 KO) annihilated the shaky-chinned former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price (22-5, 18 KOs) in a brutal 5th round knockout on Saturday night on Sky Box Office at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Povetkin badly hurt the 34-year-old Price with a right hand in the 5th. Povetkin then finished Price off with a monstrous left hook that put him down flat on the canvas. The fight was stopped at that point by referee Howard John Foster. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:02 of round 5. Price was literally out on his feet and totally out on his feet and frozen after getting hurt by the big right hand from Povetkin.
The Russian could have hit Price with a jab at that point and he would have fell down hard, but he finished him off with the coup de grace left hook. Price was already knocked out from the right hand. The referee should have stopped it to prevent Povetkin from hitting Price when he was totally defenseless. Price’s mouth was bleeding afterwards. Hopefully, he doesn’t have a broken jaw.
I think speak for everyone here when I say Price needs to retire. He looks he can’t take a hard head shot anymore, and his stamina is like something you would see from an 8 pack a day smoker.
You can’t say Price didn’t have his chances to win the fight. He hurt the 38-year-old Povetkin with a big left hook late in the 3rd round that sent the Russian flying into the ropes. The referee Foster ruled it a knockdown due to the ropes holding Povetkin up. He was definitely hurt. However, instead of Price taking advantage of the situation by going after Povetkin the next round in the 4th, he spent most of the time covering up, looking exhausted from his previous energy expenditure from round 3.
In round 3, Povetkin knocked the 6’8” Price down with a hard right hand to the head. It looked like the fight was going to end right there, but Price came back strong and landed some hard punches that resulted with Povetkin getting knocked into the ropes.
The win for Povetkin leaves him in position to challenge IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua later this year as the World Boxing Association mandatory challenger. Price had a chance to put himself in that position if he had won tonight, but he couldn’t do the job.
Povetkin did not look good tonight. The way he fought, Joshua and Deontay Wilder would absolutely destroy this guy. Povetkin is too small and too old at this point to do anything. Luis Ortiz and Dillian Whyte would have likely beaten Povetkin tonight, as well as Jarrell Miller.
Povetkin had his day, but he looks like a shot fighter. He’s put some wins together against weak heavyweights, but he’s not going to be competitive at all against Joshua. We’re talking about a fast knockout win for Joshua.
It’s too bad Povetkin tested positive for a banned substance and lost out on his title shot against Wilder in 2016. That would have been fun to watch. Povetkin has lost a few steps since then. He’s not the fighter he was 2016, and even then, Wilder likely would have knocked him out with the first big right hand he landed. At this point, it wouldn’t even be a fair fight. Povetkin is too old, too slow and too small for Wilder or Joshua.
Other boxing results on tonight’s card:
WBA World bantamweight champion Ryan Burnett (19-0, 9 KOs) out-boxed and over-matched #2 WBA Yonfrez Parejo (21-3-1, 10 KOs) in beating him by a dull 12 round unanimous decision. The judges scored the fight 120-108, 120-108 and 116-112. It’s too bad Burnett chose to fight Parejo father than Zolani Tete or Emmanuel Rodriguez. A lot of boxing fans believe Burnett dodged Tete and Rodriguez. It’s hard to argue with that belief.