TONY THOMPSON believes he is just days away from ruining all hopes of David Price and Tyson Fury meeting.
The American double world title challenger (36-3) meets British and Commonwealth champion Price (15-0) in a 12 round international heavyweight contest at Liverpool’s Echo Arena on Saturday February 23.
Price v Fury is the biggest domestic clash right now, and purses bids were due to be held on Wednesday, but Tyson pulled out.
When Tyson first came to you, his conditioning was sub-par and he was more a good fighter, as opposed to a good boxer. 18 months later and his conditioning has improved dramatically, he’s professional in his approach to fights, has solid boxing fundamentals, and has progressed leaps and bounds technically. How happy are you with his progress and do you expect a similar rate of progress between now and in another 18 months?
I’m delighted with his development and have put in endless hours every day over the last 12 months in particular. Every single area is painstakingly gone through. He is constantly improving technically, as well as in terms of conditioning, and come April we will see another level in Tyson again.
How did you rate Tyson’s performance last time out against Kevin Johnson? On the Channel 5 coverage, you were heard advising Tyson to stick to the gameplan and not allow the crowd to influence his boxing, so were you concerned at that point that Tyson might lose focus and try too hard to ‘entertain’ the crowd with a grandstand finish?
By Michael Collins: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko needs an opponent for his April 6th fight date in Germany, and thus far there isn’t anyone that his management team has picked out for him. Odlanier Solis was reportedly ruled out for Wladimir, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
Unbeaten British heavyweight #4 WBC Tyson Fury (20-0, 14 KO’s) is hoping he’ll get the fight with the 6’6” Ukrainian. In fact, Fury seems almost desperate to get the fight because WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko likely won’t be fighting Fury anytime soon if ever.
Fury said on his twitter page “Klitschko, if you fight Solis you’re a p***y! Fight me!. Solis is a fat s**t! He got KO’d by Vitali in 2.”
Jack Scales – 2012 proved to be a fruitful year for British boxing, in both the paid and unpaid ranks. The Olympic games showcased a plethora of young talent, whilst the professional game blessed us with emphatic performances from the likes of Carl Froch, Ricky Burns, Kell Brook, Toney Bellew and Carl Frampton. In spite of this success, 2012 still suffered its fair share of disappointment. Price and Fury’s failure to fight for the British title -as a result of Fury’s decision to vacate – was one of them, but hopefully this can be rectified in 2013.
With the exception of David Haye, these two behemoths are without question the best pair of Heavyweights that Britain has to offer. Additionally, because of their size and ever advancing skill-sets, they have been touted by some as potential conquerors of the Klitschkos. Are they presently capable of this? Most respected fight analysts would give you a resounding no. However, what these two fighters are capable of is offering the publican enthralling and potentially brutal contest.
By Michael Collins: Undefeated heavyweight contender Tyson Fury (20-0, 14 KO’s) has reportedly turned down a big £1 million offer from British promoter Frank Maloney for a fight against the unbeaten 6’8” David Price (15-0, 13 KO’s) for an all British clash in June, possibly in Anfield or London.
By Michael Collins: British heavyweight Tyson Fury (20-0, 14 KO’s) is reportedly interested in taking on UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velazquez in a fight in the ring or in the cage. The 6’9” Fury thinks he’s got the size to beat the 6’1” Velazquez.
By Michael Collins: Peter Fury, the trainer for unbeaten #4 WBC Tyson Fury (20-0, 14 KO’s), is hoping that the 24-year-old Fury can jump in line in front of the arguably much more popular David Haye to get a title shot against the 41-year-old WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in March or at some point in 2013.
By Jeff Sorby: Big 6’9” unbeaten former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (20-0, 14 KO’s) didn’t see much he liked of Deontay Wilder (26-0, 26 KO’s) in watching his 3rd round knockout win over Kelvin Price (13-1, 6 KO’s) last Saturday night.
Fury sees Wilder as having little more than his right hand going for him, and he doesn’t think that’s going to be enough for Wilder to amount to much in the heavyweight division. Fury, 24, also thinks that his recent opponent Kevin Johnson would beat Wilder if the two guys went at it.
Fury said on his social media site twitter “Just watched Wilder fight! Not impressed at all. He couldn’t beat Kevin Johnson! Very raw and open to big shots. Long way to go; big punch. Wilder and [David] Price are the same, untested hype! To be a top fighter you need more than a punch! They have a long way to go. Why not fight each other.”
Fury isn’t giving Wilder much credit for his knockout win over Price for some reason. To be sure, Wilder did look really raw in that fight, and he definitely needs a lot of improvement.