By Kenneth Friedman: Heavyweight David Price (25-6, 20 KOs) put in his best performance in seven years in stopping Dave Allen (17-5-2, 14 KOs) at the end of the 10th round on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Allen, 27, took an enormous amount of punishment against the much bigger, stronger and experienced 6’8″ Price. At the end of the 10th round, Allen’s trainer Darren Barker decided to pull him out of the fight.
The 6’3″ Allen lacked the height, reach and the power to do much of anything in this contest.
Price’s stamina and chin looked superb
There were signs tonight of Price gassing out or getting hurt from the shots that Allen was hitting him. The way that Price looked tonight, it would have been difficult for any of his past opponents to beat him. He fought smart, used his jab, and tied Allen when he got close. This is the type of performance that Price needed to show in his stoppage losses to Alexander Povetkin, Christian Hammer, Sergey Kuzmin, Erkan Teper and Tony Thompson.
Price used his jab to pick the shorter Allen apart from the outside. When Allen could come in punching range, Price frequently tied him up in a clinch to prevent him from getting his shots off. As the fight progressed, Price landed powerful uppercuts and right hands when Allen would come forward. Allen took the shots well, but his right eye began to swell up by round nine. His face was reddened from all the jabs that Price was hitting him with.
Allen had nothing left in round 10
At the end of the 10th, it was clear that Allen had no chance of winning, and he was just taking punishment. It was for the best that his trainer Barker pulled him out, because he had no chance of winning.
Allen’s punching power looked considerably less than in his previous fight against Lucas Browne. He couldn’t get his shots off against Price due to the height and reach. Price picked off the best shots from Allen, and kept him bottled up on the outside for the most part.
After all the trash talking that Allen had done in saying he was going to knockout Price early, it was for nothing. Allen had already been planning on fighting Alexander Povetkin next. He’d asked his promoter Eddie Hearn to line up the fight for him, and it was a done deal if he’d won.
Price saves his career
With the victory, Price saved his career for another day. Had he lost to Allen tonight, it would have been over for him. Hearn said as much as well. It’s unclear what’s next for the 36-year-old Price. Hearn will likely offer Price a fight against former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk or Filip Hrgovic. It would be better for Price if Hearn matched him against some of the battle fringe contenders so that he can pushed up the top 15 rankings. With Price’s history of suffering knockouts, Hearn should focus on matching him smartly in order to get him pushed to a top five ranking.