2008 Olympic bronze medal winner David Price pulled out of his scheduled fight on June 26 in Liverpool due to an apparent pulled neck muscle, although an opponent had yet to be named for the bout.
Price spoke in a statement through his promoter, Sauerland Event’s press office via BoxingScene.com
“Of course I’m disappointed. I had been looking forward to returning home at the very top of my game and fighting in front of my home fans once again, but, unfortunately, that will have to wait.”
Price wasted no time to call out fellow countryman Anthony Joshua, who has knocked out every opponent in his path in the pros thus far, speaking with Sky Sports.
“We’re ready to make that fight whenever,” said Price.
“If you look at this logically, it suits me better to fight Joshua now. He’s only had 13 fights and he hasn’t gone past three rounds, so I’ve got the experience in my favour.”
Price (19-2, 16 KO’s) is treading into perilous waters. Although Joshua is a shark, he tends to bite only once; that being because that one bite tends to be a huge right hand that sends his opponents into befuddlement, just ask Raphael Love. And Price himself doesn’t have a good chin, either.
Both of his defeats have come in 2013 to Tony Thompson, who has been knocked out by Wladimir Klitschko on two separate occasions.
Thompson knocked out Thompson with a right hand in that didn’t even land clean, yet it was enough to end Price’s evening.
Although Price knocked him down early in the second fight, the Liverpool fighter didn’t do much after but move around.
Thompson got fed up with it and landed a strong combination on the inside that stunned Price, and stopped him inside the fifth round.
Say what you want to say about Price looking good in his past four fights, but who the heck are these guys? Let’s take a look.
Istvan Ruzsinszky has been knocked out in five of his last six fights, Ondrej Pala was stopped by Dereck Chisora in 2013.
Yaroslav Zavorotnyi is notorious for fighting guys with no wins on their record; he’s done that five times in his career, including a fourth-round stoppage of Sedrak Agagulyan (1-30), and Irineu Beato Costa Junior was beaten by Joseph Parker and Christian Hammer prior to getting stopped by Price.
Price is scheduled to fight Erkan Teper for the European heavyweight title on July 17. And unlike Price, Teper has been fighting the legitimate opposition and sits 14-0 with nine knockouts.
If he loses to Teper, which I’m predicting, forget about a date with Joshua; it won’t happen.