By Terence Dooley
Liverpool's David Price is expected to announce the maiden defence of his British heavyweight title next week. The 29-year-old British and Commonwealth titlist has been pencilled in for an October outing at his home city's ECHO Arena venue, with former EBU champion Audley Harrison rumoured to be the name in the frame for what should be Price's first outing on BoxNation TV due to a link up between Frank Maloney, who promotes Price, and the subscription TV station.
Price hammered Sam Sexton to a fourth round defeat in May to pick up the belts, which were vacated by former holder Tyson Fury, who has since admitted that the fact they fight on rival TV networks has made it tough to ink a fight between Britain's biggest heavyweight hopes.
There has been a lot of talk about the possibility of a meeting between Price and Harrison, a former olympic gold medallist, but Matt Skelton's name has also been mentioned. However, this fight seems an unlikely option as the 45-year-old former British and Commonwealth title holder is not going to entice the casual fans needed to make the choice of the ECHO a viable economic option.
Indeed, Price, 13-0 (11), needs to scalp a big name, and Harrison, despite his flaws, is a crossover star here in the U.K. Harrison recently threw his name into the domestic title mix during a full and frank interview with BoxingScene ( https://www.boxingscene.com/audley-i-destroy-myself-build-myself-up-again--53711 ) following his comeback win over Ali Adams in May - a fourth-round stoppage. Harrison, 28-5 (21), is 40-years old and has consistently failed to impact at title level aside from his memorable final round KO of Michael Sprott in April 2010, but a meeting between big Price and "A-Force" would create the same type of British scene buzz as the recent meeting between David Haye and Dereck Chisora.
All will be revealed next week.
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