David Price surely ended the career of Audley Harrison with a devastating first-round knockout victory in Liverpool. Price, defending his British and Commonwealth titles for the first time, hurt the former Olympic gold medallist with a straight right hand inside a minute and the veteran never recovered.
Echo Arena, Liverpool - Heavyweight contender Matt Skelton (28-6, 23KOs) stopped Jakov Gospic (11-5, 9KOs) in two rounds. Gospic went down in the second round from what appeared to be a clash of heads, but ruled as a knockdown. Gospic's head was cut from the clash. Gospic went down a second time in the round and the fight was stopped. Skelton is now in the running to fight the Audley Harrison-David Price winner in December.
This week, ahead of his British and Commonwealth heavyweight challenge to David Price at Liverpool’s Echo Arena, Audley Harrison publically declared that for the last 12 years he’s ‘been living a lie’! Cheers, mate! Over the past decade, the 2000 Sydney Olympic gold medallist has done as much as anybody to jeopardise professional boxing in Britain. Firstly, promoting himself under the ‘A-Force’ banner, he managed to ostracise the BBC from boxing, after negotiating a £1 million, 10 fight deal which lacked any quality control and allowed Harrison to pick ridiculously lame opposition. Then Big Aud helped put the kibosh on pay-per-view TV promotions in this country following his lamentable ‘no show’ when challenging David Haye for the WBA title in November 2010. Back-pedalling Harrison landed just one punch – a jab - prior to getting rescued in round three.
The past meets the present in Liverpool this weekend as one-time British world heavyweight hope Audley Harrison attempts to go to the well one last time when he meets unbeaten Scouse wonder David Price. Harrison of course needs no introduction. He famously scooped gold at the Olympics in Sydney back in 2000 to achieve instant celebrity. However despite reaching the absolute pinnacle in a vest and head guard his career as a pro has a huge disappointment. He has talked the talk but rarely walked the walk and he's bang up against it this weekend.
British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price insists he would take little pleasure from dishing out a one-sided beating to Audley Harrison in his native Liverpool on Saturday night. By his own admission, former Olympic gold medallist Harrison is facing the end of a professional career that has lurched from frustration to farce should he lose to the man who claimed Beijing bronze eight years on from his own Sydney high-watermark.
Audley Harrison accepts that even he will be unable to resurrect a career notable for repeated visits to the last chance saloon if he fails to defeat David Price. The Olympic medalists meet for Price's British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles at Liverpool Echo Arena on Saturday night. While Price has amassed a 13-0 record in impressive style, including eye-catching knockouts of John McDermott and Sam Sexton, Harrison has been reduced to a figure of ridicule.
By Thomas Gerbasi - Honesty is always in short supply in the fight game. Whether it’s promoters, publicists, managers, or trainers, the odds of getting a straight answer on anything is always hit or miss. Fighters may be the worst culprits, but also the ones most worthy of forgiveness, simply because to be a great fighter, or any fighter, for that matter, you have to have mastered the art of lying. You just got punched in the face. It didn’t hurt. You just turned down a fight with someone you know will either beat you or give you hell. He can’t sell tickets or he priced himself out of the fight. You’re getting ready for a fight destined to leave you bruised, battered, and in pain for the next two weeks. I love the war. You just got knocked down, your head is spinning, and the referee asks if you’re okay. I’m all right. Do you want to continue? Yes. So when 2000 Olympic Gold medal winner Audley Harrison admitted in a press release that he has “lived a lie in the amateurs and professional game,” it was a rare moment of honesty that makes it crystal clear that he understands what’s at stake in one of the weekend’s biggest fights, a Saturday clash with unbeaten rising star David Price in Liverpool.
Heavyweights David Price and Audley Harrison went face to face ahead of Saturday's bout at the Echo Arena in Liverpool. Price (13-0, 11KOs), an Olympic bronze medal winner, faces the most experienced opponent of his entire career in Harrison (28-5, 21KOs), an Olympic gold medal winner.
Hot talent Paul Butler will be looking to follow in the much bigger footsteps of his Liverpool compatriot David Price, the British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion, by scooping his own version of the Lonsdale belt, when he challenges John Donnelly for the vacant British Super-Flyweight title at the Liverpool Olympia on Friday 9th November.
It’s not only his colossal 6ft 8in, 245lb frame that promises to distinguish David Price as the biggest emerging star in British boxing. The 29 year old Liverpudlian appears the Brit best equipped to dominate the world heavyweight division since Lennox Lewis. Unbeaten in 13 pro gigs, with 11 victims crumbling early (10 inside four rounds), the reigning British and Commonwealth king, known as ‘The Power Ranger’, has lately demonstrated a frightening kayo punch to supplement the technical tools that saw him cruise to three ABA titles, a Commonwealth Games gold medal and bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.