By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight David Price (22-5, 18 KOs) is rumored to be facing Sergey Kuzmin (12-0, 9 KOs) on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin on September 22, according to Michael Benson. Having Price fight on Joshua’s undercard if an odd way for Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn to try and attract boxing fans to purchase tickets.
Price has been badly knocked out three times since 2015, and it’s no longer interesting. Six years ago, Price was capable of beating domestic level fighters, but those days are long past. He falls apart each time he’s matched against a decent fighter.
This is such a bad match-up for Price. It’s not that the 31-year-old Kuzmin is a great fighter, because he’s clearly a flawed guy. Price’s chin issues make him an easy mark for Kuzmin. If Price is thinking of retiring from the sport, this fight might be the one that makes his decision for him.
You would think that Hearn would be putting younger talent on the Joshua undercards instead of guys going nowhere in the sport. Hearn is going to need to do a heck of a lot better than Price vs. Kuzmin if he wants to attract a lot of interest from boxing fans in the Joshua-Povetkin card. Stuffing the undercard with less than spectacular fights like this isn’t going to make fans want to purchase the card on Sky Box Office or come to see it live.
This is a tough match-up for the 34-year-old Price, who was stopped in the 5th round by Povetkin a little less than five months ago on March 31 in Cardiff, Wales. Price, 6’8”, hurt Povetkin with a left hook in round three. However, after that brief flash of success, Price ran out of gas and ended up getting batted around the ring until Povetkin knocked him flat in the 5th round.
The card will be televised on Sky Box Office at Wembley Stadium in London, UK. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn put together a two-fight deal to have AJ’s September 22 and April 13 fights take place at Wembley Stadium. The question is will the boxing fans show up in high enough numbers to purchase enough tickets to sell out the 90,000 seat stadium. The stadium is being reconfigured to fit 100,000 fans for the April 13 date.
Other possible fights on the Joshua vs. Povetkin card are as follows:
– Luke Campbell vs. Yvan Mendy – Campbell (18-2, 15 KOs) and Mendy (40-4-1, 19 KOs) are facing each other to earn the mandatory spot to challenge World Boxing Council lightweight champion Mikey Garcia. More likely the winner of the Campbell-Mendy fight will step into Garcia’s shoes as the WBC lightweight champion. Campbell lost to Mendy by a 12 round split decision in September 2015. Campbell wants to avenge that loss, but he might end up losing again. Mendy clearly had Campbell’s number.
– Matty Askin vs. Lawrence Okolie