By Trevor McIntyre: Kash Ali (15-1, 7 KOs) has been suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control [BBBofC] for biting heavyweight David Price (24-6, 19 KOs) in the fifth round last Saturday night on the Liam Smith vs. Sam Eggington card on DAZN and Sky Sports at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Ali’s £20,000 purse for the fight was withheld due to the bite disqualification. There’s no word about how long Kash’s suspension will last. It’s not likely to be a permanent ban for Kash, as fighters have been allowed to return to the sport in the past after biting their opponents.
Ali, 27, was disqualified immediately after pulling the 6’8″ Price to the canvas, and then biting him on the midsection while he was down. Price said he was trying to get up, but Kash was holding him down and then bit him.
Price, 35, says he was bit twice by Kash during the fight. The first bite was on the shoulder.
Referee Mark Lyson disqualified Kash at 2:20 of round five after he bit Price. Kash then left the arena, and was escorted by security. However, on Kash’s way back to his dressing room, he was pelted by drinks from crowd members. at the Echo Arena.
“He was trying to pin me down, and I was trying to get up,” Price said to IFL TV about Kash holding him down after tackling him in the fifth. “I told him, ‘You had your chance.’ He went out in disgrace. He said, ‘rematch,’ but I’ll never share the ring with someone like that ever again. We’ll see what’s next. It’s a gentlemen’s sport, boxing, but sometimes people want to find a way out. It’s been done before. It won’t be the last time someone gets bit. I hit him with a right hand to the body in the fifth, and he winced. That’s when he started grabbing me, and tackled me to the floor and took that little chunk. It was disappointing,” Price said.
It was a disappointing way for Price to win the fight, as he had Kash hurt in the fifth, and close to being stopped. Had Kash not tackled him to the canvas, Price likely would have stopped him in the 5th. Kash was badly hurt from a body shot and a big uppercut to the head.
Price’s next move will be to fight the winner of Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne vs. Dave Allen fight, which will be taking place this month on the 20th of April at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
“I think so. That’s a fight that can be made,” Price said about him wanting to fight the winner of the April 20th fight between Lucas Browne and David Allen match. “The winner of that. I think it’ll be an interesting fight,” Price said.
That’s going to be hard for Price to get passed the hard hitting David Allen (16-4, 13 KOs) if he’s the one he winds up facing. Although Allen doesn’t possess the same pedigree as Price, he’s a big puncher, young, and has a great engine. Allen’s punch resistance is excellent as well. He can take a heavy shot and keep fighting. Despite the fact that Allen was knocked out twice in his career by Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz and Tony Yoka, those losses occurred late in the fight after Allen had taken a lot of heavy shots.
Unless Price jumps on Allen in the first four rounds in trying hard for a knockout, he will need to have some stamina to be able to take the match into the later rounds. The problem for Price is he hasn’t shown the conditioning to be able to fight hard beyond the fourth round in several of his fights in the last two years in losses to Sergey Kuzmin, Alexander Povetkin and Christian Hammer.
Price was fighting at a very slow pace against Kash Ali last Saturday night in order to keep from gassing out. It didn’t matter though, as Price looked in an exhausted state in the fifth round and close to being knocked out. He was hurt by some shots from Kash when he was backed up against the ropes in the fifth. Price looked totally spent as he covered up, and gave the younger 27-year-old Kash the opportunity to unload on him with a flurry of shots.
It was fortunate for Price that the referee separated the two fighters and brought back to the center of the ring. That’s when Kash threw a sloppy long right hand that Price countered with a big uppercut that stunned him. Ali then grabbed Price and took him to the canvas to keep from being knocked out. Kash wasn’t just holding on. He appeared to purposefully take Price down. The only explanation for that is would have given Kash more time to recover from being hurt, because the referee would have to get them both back to their feet, and wipe their gloves off before the action was allowed to resume.
Probably July,” Price said when asked when he’ll be fighting next.
Price has other options besides just facing the winner of the Browne vs. Allen fight in July. It’s possible that Price could face former world title challenger Dereck Chisora if he wants that fight. You can argue it would be a bigger fight for Price to face Chisora than it would be for him to take on the winner of the Browne-Allen fight. Both fights would be risky ones for Price, because those guys can all punch and they have good gas tanks.
“His bottle went,” said Sky Sports News commentator Tony Bellew in talking about Kash Ali’s disqualification. “He did some disgusting things that have no place in a boxing ring.”
