David Price Off Liverpool Bill, Tom Farrell Gets Title Opportunity
By Elliot Foster
David Price has been ruled out of his fight this weekend.
The Liverpool heavyweight was set for a six-round contest, live on Sky Sports, on Saturday.
But Price, 33, who scored a two-round stoppage over Ivica Perkovic on October 1 in Neubrandenburg, Germany, to move to 21-3 (18 KOs), will not appear in his home city.
He was set to box on the undercard of Tony Bellew’s first WBC cruiserweight world title defence against colourful Californian BJ Flores on October 15 at the ECHO Arena.
However, his fight was canned after Price was struck down with a virus last weekend.
Promoter Eddie Hearn, whose Matchroom Sport company are staging the Bellew-Flores card this weekend, confirmed the news at Monday’s final press conference.
“One [piece of] news I must give is that David Price has come down with a virus over the weekend and won’t be on the bill,” Hearn told press and fans at the Royal Liver Building on Merseyside.
Tom Farrell (9-0, 2 KOs), meanwhile, will capitalise on Price’s misfortune and has been granted a TV slot on Saturday.
The super-lightweight, who outpointed Kofi Yates on May 29 in an English title eliminator at Everton Football Club’s Goodison Park stadium, will look to pick up his first title when he takes on Farid Hakimi (9-1, 5 KOs) over 10 rounds with the vacant WBA International strap at stake.
And Rocky Fielding, whose missus is expecting their first child on Saturday, will be hoping he can do a job ahead of time this weekend.
The WBC International super-middleweight champion had been set to defend his crown, but due to there being a lack of suitable opponents he will instead do eight rounds.
Fielding (22-1, 12 KOs) is set for action against Hungary’s Istvan Zeller (33-12, 10 KOs) and has told Boxing Scene that he has instructed his girlfriend that he is to get a win before the baby comes.
