Talk about running into the wrong guy, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Twice. Rewind to 2013, and British giant David Price was riding high. A 2008 Olympic bronze medal winner, Price of Liverpool had compiled a 15-0(13) pro record during which time he had won the English, the British, and the Commonwealth titles. Price, a big, strong, and powerful guy, had crushed fellow Brits John McDermott (one round), Sam Sexton (four rounds), Audley Harrison (one round), and Matt Skelton (two rounds), and he was seen as the next big thing from the UK.
Then, in February of 2013, Price ran into veteran heavyweight contender Tony Thompson. Southpaw Thompson had hit 40 and he was coming off a crushing stoppage loss to Wladimir Klitschko, this in a rematch shot at Wlad, the heavyweight title once again on the line. Thompson looked pretty old in the Klitschko return, and it was deemed smart thinking to bring him in to give Price a decent test but not too much more. Instead, the cute veteran from Washington, DC ruined Price with a shot that landed behind the ear. Price went down in a heap in round two, his legs and equilibrium gone.
But was it something of a fluke win by Thompson, a fluke shot? The rematch came on this day back in July of 2013, and once again, fans in attendance at The Echo Arena in Liverpool witnessed the upset. Price had a real battle handling his pre-fight nerves and had the great Lennox Lewis on board as his co-trainer this time, but it didn’t help him.
Price did come close to getting his revenge, this when he dropped Thompson with a big right hand to the head in round two. Thompson looked done, yet he dragged himself upright at the count of nine. At this point, the two men engaged in a slugfest, the action coming thick and fast. But already, Price’s gas tank was running on low. Thompson was hurt by another right in the third, the shot sending him crashing into the ropes, but Price soon punched himself out.
Thompson took over in the fourth, landing good shots to the rapidly fading Price. In the fifth, Thompson, 38-3(27), pounded on an exhausted, bent-over sitting duck of a target. Blow after blow landed and the referee dived in, initially to issue a standing eight count but, when seeing how gone Price was, the third man stopped the fight. Price’s career would never recover, with the 30-year-old going on to suffer nasty knockouts at the hands of Erkan Teper (later changed to a No Contest due to Teper failing a drug test), Christian Hammer, Alexander Povetkin, Sergey Kuzmin, and finally Derek Chisora.
Post-fight, Thompson called out Tyson Fury and Vitali Klitschko. Neither fight happened for “The Tiger,” who instead went on to lose to Kubrat Pulev before he twice beat Odlanier Solis. Thompson would also lose to Carlos Takam and Malik Scott, and then, in his final fight, Luis Ortiz stopped him.
David Price once looked set to conquer the world, but he was brought down by a crafty veteran who proved to be his bogeyman.
