if he wasn't matched with Thompson? To this day i don't understand how he went down in the first fight. Or if he gained his confidence back by beating him in the second fight? All of the UK heavies from that era went on to be legit top 10 guys except him and Audley.
I loved watching him fight from behind my hand’s which were over my face, peaking out through the gaps…..waiting.
I think so. He was huge and could hit like a locomotive. With better footwork and use of the jab he might have been able to protect his lightbulb chin and gotten somewhere good. He'd never have been 'great' because a glass chin is fatal at the highest levels but he'd have been legit scary for a lot of guys.
lol i was drinking diet coke when i read this. My diet coke went right throw my nose due to my laughter.
I'm still not convinced it was just a case of him being exposed. He developed more problems after that first loss. I'm no headshrink but he had anxiety in the ring. That's why he would gas after 3 rounds. Earlier in his career, he was composed amd wouldn't be out of puff so quickly.
Yep, one of the best super-heavyweight amateurs Britain had produced, and one hell of a puncher -- never saw someone been lifted of the canvas and I always recall Tony Bellew's story of how Price buzzed David Haye in sparring ~
The question is could he have accomplished more. Not would he have been exposed eventually or not had he beaten Thompson.
No absolutely not. He found his ceiling. He fought a lot of guys at that level and lost to them all. If there was a way for Price to get to a further level he'd have had to beat some of the guys who knocked him out
Thompson got popped in a drug test after their rematch so yeah it's possible that Price could have had a different career.
I don't think so. Yes he had a weak chin and an even weaker gas tank, which could be used to describe early Wlad, but he never had the jab to keep opponents off him like Wlad or the movement to sustain range and without that ability to keep opponents at distance his chin and gas tank would always be tested at the top level. Maybe if he had a different coach who could teach him to use his lead hand properly or to clinch to control the pace of fights then he might have done more he would of had more success, but I don't see him ever being an elite heavyweight.
If he was protected like AJ or Wilder, absolutely. He would probably eventually lost to Fury or Povetkin or a Klitschko at that time, but might have nailed them too if he 'let his hands go' as Wlad would say. There's no way they'd have put AJ in with Thompson at that point without a belt on the line, especially not twice. Those were both weird fights too. The first one he went down with that ear shot and did look fine just after the stoppage, then took a ton of shots in the second but didn't go down though was out of it on the ropes, bit unlucky he couldn't finish Thompson after the big hit. Not being able to take out Thompson after the KD sort of ruined his career I suppose. Then he had that idiot trainer who told him to pile on weight for the Hammer fight and he gassed. Then he took fights unprepared, just for the money (Kuzmin, Chisora), which didn't help his record.