On this corresponding weekend in 2012, David Price obliterated Audley Harrison inside one round to successfully defend the British and Commonwealth titles.
It was a savage display as two right hands landed flush with Harrison on the ropes; a position from where he would lifelessly slump to the canvas after being snapped from consciousness. With the thrashing Price moved to 14-0 (12 KOs), and it seemed only a matter of time before the then-29-year-old would become the leading candidate to break the Klitschko stranglehold on the banner division.
“I remember going to the center of the ring to touch gloves and I was focusing on parts of [Harrison’s] face that I wanted to bury my fist into. I was looking at his cheeks,” Price, now 42, reflects. “That was the zone I went into. At that time, I felt like everything I hit was going to fall over and that was the case most of the time.
“My right hand, which was then injury-free, was knocking everyone out. When I had that power, I could draw so much confidence. … It was like a screw-right-uppercut, it went into his cheek which is what I was focusing on before the fight and a right hook that finished him.
“I remember saying afterwards that, with that screw shot, I could feel my knuckle going through the glove. I could feel bone on bone. I could feel the impact of the punches. Sometimes you don’t feel the impact of the punches, but that one, I did.”
Price was indeed a wrecking ball. He had won the Olympic bronze medal at the 2008 Games, reignited his city of Liverpool’s love of boxing, and many fighters and experts were tipping Price to go on and rule the world.
He would fall short of doing so, however; two consecutive upset losses to Tony Thompson the following year triggered a slump in both confidence and form, but Price – now exceptionally happy and secure in retirement – only looks back on those early days of promise with wonder.
“It was fucking brilliant,” he said with a chuckle. “It was exciting. Although it was short-lived, this hype and everything else, the way I look at it is that some fighters go through their entire career without having that type of hype, and achieve more than what I achieved, but they didn’t have that aura around them. I was fortunate, even though it did turn out to be hype, to a point.
“There was talk of world title fights, it was a buzz. I do miss that. I would go through that time again in my life, everything was good.”
The 82-second demolition of Harrison was the high point of Price’s early years in professional boxing. “It couldn’t have gone any better on the night,” he remembers. “That was when the hype and excitement really went up a notch. I felt like a fucking superstar at the time. But it was difficult coming back from that, back down to normality, after I’d lost to [Tony Thompson]. Feeling like I needed to get back to where I was – and I couldn’t get back there.”
Price eventually made it some of the way back, securing memorable dustups with Alexander Povetkin and Derek Chisora to close out his career, while putting the likes of Dave Allen, Kash Ali and Tom Little in their place.
The rival that got away, though, was Tyson Fury, the man Price had defeated as an amateur and the opponent British fans were eager to see him face once he’d demolished Harrison.
Fury was 19-0 at the time but had nothing like the reputation he would go on to secure when he, and not Price, all but ended the Klitschko era in 2015 with victory over Wladimir. But at the time of Price’s pomp, Fury was drawing mixed reviews for victories over opponents like Vinny Madalone, he’d been dropped by Nevan Pajkic and he’d struggled to convince in two bouts with John McDermott, a man Price took out in a solitary round. Had Price-Fury been made at the end of 2012 or the start of the following year, therefore, Price would have been a healthy favorite.
“At that time Fury was still pretty reckless and open,” Price said with a wry smile as he imagined his right hand zeroing in on Fury’s unguarded chin. “I was firing. If ever there was a time, as a pro, to beat him, it was then. As an amateur, I was beating him every day and twice on a Sunday. He’ll want to fight me for saying that now [laughs].”
Matt Christie, a lifelong fight fan, has worked in boxing for more than 20 years. He left Boxing News in 2024 after 14 years, nine of which were spent as editor-in-chief. Before that, he was the producer of weekly boxing show “KOTV.” Now the co-host of ”The Opening Bell” podcast and regularly used by Sky Sports in the UK as a pundit, Matt was named as the Specialist Correspondent of the Year at the prestigious Sports Journalism Awards in 2021, which was the seventh SJA Award he accepted during his stint in the hot seat at Boxing News. The following year, he was inducted into the British Boxing Hall of Fame. He is a member of the BWAA and has been honored several times in their annual writing awards.
