Price vs. Thompson: Tony’s only chance of winning is to close his eyes and swing for Price’s chin

By ESB - 01/06/2013 - Comments

By Michael Collins: David Price’s promoter has found another older fighter for Price to fight in 41-year-old Tony Thompson (36-3, 24 KO’s) on February 23rd at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Price’s fans think this is a great step up fight for the 29-year-old Price. It isn’t.

Thompson is slow and he’s coming off of a 6th round TKO last July to Wladimir Klitschko, and he has very little chance of winning this fight. The only chance I can see that Thompson has of winning is if he lands something big early.

The problem is Thompson isn’t a knockout puncher. He’s got some knockouts on his resume but those are fights were he beat his opposition down with an accumulation of punches and most of the knockouts came against weak opponents. Thompson probably isn’t going to be able to land a big shot that could somehow get him past Price, because he doesn’t hit hard enough.

So what we’re looking at here is another over-matched older opponent for Price to look good against. In his last two fights, he’s beaten 40-year-old Audley Harrison and 45-year-old Matt Skelton. Now it’s 41-year-old Thompson. I can only imagine who’ll be next after Thompson. I’m sure there’s some more 40-year-olds that Price’s promoter can dig up for Price, but it would be so much better if Price started getting matched against younger guys because he’s going in deep trouble anyway when he fights someone with power.

We saw how Price was stopped when he faced guys with good power in the amateur ranks. What do you thinks going to happen to Price when he stops fighting old guys and finally gets put in with someone that can punch him back hard instead of just standing there frozen.

I think we’ll see Price’s heavyweight title dream shot to pieces. Price is 29, which isn’t young for a fighter still facing weak opposition, and there’s a chance that Price may not fight for a world title for another two years. What is he waiting for? He can fight a slew of 40-year-olds but they’re never going to get him ready for the likes of the Klitschkos, although he could in theory wait the Kltschkos out until they retire before he makes his move.