Lauren Price made a straightforward professional debut as the Olympic middleweight gold medallist from the Tokyo Games boxed rings around Iceland’s Valgerdur Gudstensdottir at Wembley.
It was easy picking from Wales’s Price, who is well used to performing at higher levels than this I the amateur code. It will now be seen how brave promoters BOXXER and Sky Sports will be in matching her.
The habit has been for Olympic champions to be matched hard in recent years. The reality is that Price, who will be campaigning at welterweight, could probably hold her own with world champion Jessica McCaskill or Cecilia Braekhus already. Don’t expect those sort of fights to be made, though.
“I just wanted to relax, I didn’t want to rush my work and it was a great six rounds in the bank,” Price said. “A win’s a win, I really enjoyed it.”
Price had dropped down more than a stone since her Olympic win and the task facing the Icelander was obvious within seconds as Price measured her with a lightning quick left cross.
Everything from Price came in combinations. Gudstensdottir came forward but didn’t have the handspeed to land, so instead became a mobile target.
By the fourth round, Price was hitting her at will, moving around and walking Gudstensdottir into punches.
But while Price landed clean on many occasions, she was content to go the six-round distance, taking a 60-54 decision from referee Mark Bates.
“She has been in camp for a long time since the Olympics,” Rob McCracken, her trainer, said. “It was a good opponent for her debut, she asked some questions of Lauren, and a good six rounds.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.
