By Edward Chaykovsky
David Coldwell, the head trainer for Olympic bronze medal winner David Price (21-4, 18 KOs), is devastated after his fighter was once again knocked out last Saturday night in London.
Price started off well and even dropped opponent Christian Hammer in the fifth round. But he couldn't finish Hammer off, and the German boxer battled back. Price seemed to fade with each passing round and by the seventh he was exhausted as Hammer was unloading with punches. Once Price appeared to be defenseless the referee jumped in to wave off the fight.
"I can take the grief on social media, but first things first, I'm not a strength and conditioning coach. My fighters have their own strength and conditioning coaches. Price was happy with his coach, but regardless of that, he did 12 rounds eight days before the fight, with two sparring partners," Coldwell told Sky Sports.
Coldwell does not believe Price fell apart physically, but he does feel his fighter broke apart mentally.
"The mental side of boxing can absolutely drain you and the average man on the street doesn't get that. They just think you're not fit, but you can be as fit as a fiddle and then 'gas' if you're anxious. If you can go at a good pace, be sharp, agile and powerful for 12 rounds in the gym, but yet in a fight you are gassing after three rounds - that's anxiety. It's not like it's something new, this has happened to David before," Coldwell said.
A lot of people questioned Price's heavy weight. He came in at 275-pounds, which is much higher than what seemed to be his best weight area of 240-250.
According to Coldwell, there were no weight issues in camp and Price intentionally wanted to pack on mass and fight at the much higher weight. Price was 249 for his knockout loss to Erkan Teper in July 2015. In his three fights since coming back from that loss, he's been 271, 278 and 275.
"People are also talking about his weight, but he felt so much stronger, fitter and was taking shots better at around [275]. David was sturdier on his legs in all the sparring sessions he's had over the last 10 months we've worked together. Price has never put on weight while he's been with me. He actually said he went up to around 24st after the Erkan Teper fight and as his weight came down with training, he felt comfortable at the weights he's trained at, and fought at since then," Coldwell said.
Coldwell also had some choice words for former two division world champion David Haye. After Saturday's defeat, Haye started throwing abuse at Price and Coldwell on social media.
Coldwell is the head trainer of WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew, who faces Haye on March 4th in the headline fight of a Sky Sports pay-per-view. Bellew has long claimed that several years ago both he and Price gave Haye a bad beating during a long day of sparring sessions.
"David Haye seems a very bitter man - that's just how he is these days - and having a pop at Pricey, who has never said a bad word about David Haye, was uncalled for. Tony Bellew mentioned about him and Pricey giving Haye a smashing up in Liverpool before Haye was going to fight Mark Hobson, but Pricey never said anything," Coldwell said.
"He's just a nice fellow with no edge to him and for Haye to give him a kicking on social media like that, it just shows you the class of the man - it's out of order. He has gone down to the level of a Twitter troll. David Price has got no relevance to Haye versus Bellew. None whatsoever."