Liverpool’s David Price, last seen getting knocked out by a man who subsequently failed the post-fight drugs test, has the hunger back. Speaking with The Liverpool Echo, the former British champion who was, not too long ago, looked at as sure thing to win a word title, or at the very least challenge for one, says he wants to start to “take people out again.”
The hard puncher who was 15-0(13) before losing a shocker to Tony Thompson, and then losing the return, also by stoppage, says he has made changes to his game and that he is “starting out fresh.”
“I’m reviewing my training situation. I’m starting out fresh. I’m going to change everything about myself,” Price said. “Change my ring entrance; the colours I wear. I have a tattoo on my back of Mother Theresa riding out of the flames of Hell with the Devil’s head on a stick. It’s a symbolic gesture. I want to come back like the old David Price, before the second Tony Thompson fight. I want to take people out again.”
Price’s latest comeback could take place on April 2nd at The Echo Arena in his native Liverpool. And, in light of how two of his losses – one to Thompson, the loss to Teper – have been changed to No-Contests (on some records) due to Thompson and Teper failing drugs tests, the damage to Price’s career is not quite as bad as it appeared. Fans might be willing to give Price another chance of fulfilling his potential. Of course, there are those who claim Price’s chin will always let him down and that he would have lost to both Thompson and Teper even of they had fought clean.
Price strongly disagrees with such claims:
“It’s a massive problem in boxing,” he told The Echo. “It’s the only sport where if you’re on drugs it could lead to your opponent getting critically or fatally injured. I’ve read people on the internet say he would have got knocked out anyway, that it wouldn’t have made any difference. Well, if it doesn’t make any difference let us all take it. I’m telling you now, it does make a difference, that’s why it’s banned. I could never tell you how that fight (with Teper) would have gone had he not been on something but I have never been knocked out in that manner. When he hit me in the first round I thought, ‘What!’ It shook me to my boots. I tried to grab him but he pushed me off – he felt like a bull.”
It’s hard not to both sympathise with Price and also give him the benefit of the doubt. How do we know how boosted or not Teper was due to something illegal? Price deserves to be commended for trying to rebuild his career, when he so easily could have called it quits like the critics – most of whom have never boxed – say he should have.
Price may never be the same promising fighter he once was, but he deserves the chance to try and get his career back on track. He was brutally beaten by a man who cheated, and that could have happened to any fighter.
It will be very interesting to see who Price’s opponent will be in April. And, it’s a long way off now, and may never happen, but if Price can gain some serious momentum, there will be no shortage of big fights out there for him. The best of luck to him.