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By Thomas Gerbasi - Pop quiz. What’s the one thing you thought you would never hear out of the mouth of an unbeaten and highly touted heavyweight prospect with less than 20 fights?
How about this, from the mouth of Liverpool’s David Price on a media teleconference earlier this week?
“I’m not fighting someone who’s guaranteed to make me look brilliant,” said the Brit, referring to the man he meets at Echo Arena in his hometown on February 23, two-time world title challenger Tony Thompson.
He’s right. Thompson, despite being 41 and coming off a sixth round TKO loss to Wladimir Klitschko (his second defeat to the current heavyweight champ), is the type of fighter that has the style that can spoil a perfect record or at least end a streak of knockout wins by delivering a defensive-minded performance that will garner more boos than cheers. Price knows this, but he took the fight anyway. In fact, it’s the kind of fight he demanded from promoter Frank Maloney.
“This is a fight that maybe I would have looked at three fights down the road, but after his last fight David sat down with me and said ‘Frank, I really want a test; I want to be put in with someone.’ And I admire that,” said Maloney, who once guided Lennox Lewis to the heavyweight crown. “We looked at a few opponents, we sat with his trainer, and eventually we came up with Tony.” [Click Here To Read More]
How about this, from the mouth of Liverpool’s David Price on a media teleconference earlier this week?
“I’m not fighting someone who’s guaranteed to make me look brilliant,” said the Brit, referring to the man he meets at Echo Arena in his hometown on February 23, two-time world title challenger Tony Thompson.
He’s right. Thompson, despite being 41 and coming off a sixth round TKO loss to Wladimir Klitschko (his second defeat to the current heavyweight champ), is the type of fighter that has the style that can spoil a perfect record or at least end a streak of knockout wins by delivering a defensive-minded performance that will garner more boos than cheers. Price knows this, but he took the fight anyway. In fact, it’s the kind of fight he demanded from promoter Frank Maloney.
“This is a fight that maybe I would have looked at three fights down the road, but after his last fight David sat down with me and said ‘Frank, I really want a test; I want to be put in with someone.’ And I admire that,” said Maloney, who once guided Lennox Lewis to the heavyweight crown. “We looked at a few opponents, we sat with his trainer, and eventually we came up with Tony.” [Click Here To Read More]
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