One decade ago last month: Anthony Tyrone "The Tiger" Thompson vs. David "Big Truck" Price I

Someone find this!

 

This was a massive upset. Price was espn prospect of the year. He, not Joshua or Fury was seen as the threat or successor to Wlad. Can’t believe it’s been 10 years. Price never recovered although he came close to winning the rematch. Things may have been different had he

 

I recall giving the Brits considerable stick over this one. Good times.

 

I remember it well. There was a lot of hype over Price here in the UK. Confident assertions that Fury was running scared of him, and would be knocked spark out within a couple of rounds if they ever met, were commonplace. This despite the fact that up until 2013 Fury had clearly fought and beaten the better names of the pair in general, albeit hadn't always blown through them with the ease and quickness that Price had done with his opponents.

To be fair, some of the older and more wily fans over here did try to temper expectations with Price, pointing out that he looked a bit stiff and wooden at times, and that his chin hadn't been properly tested yet in the professional ranks....But they were largely drowned out or even mocked as the hype frenzy swept over the UK fanbase. I also remember that, amongst the prominent YouTube boxing channels / predictors of the day, Dwyer called this upset perfectly and stuck to his guns when all and sundry said he was crazy to be picking Thompson. Turns out his reservations over Price were absolutely spot on.

I was half way between the two poles, as I usually am....I thought Price was being blown up beyond his hitherto achievements, especially when compared to Fury at that point, but at the same time I expected him to beat Thompson with something to spare, particularly when I saw how heavy and soft-looking Thompson was on the scales. I think he was something like 17 lb heavier than he'd been in his previous fight (don't quote me on that) and I assumed he was turning up just for the payday.

I also remember being amazed at how heavily favoured Price was for the rematch. Seemed as if the bookies, fans, pundits and even fellow pros were just writing the first fight off as a complete fluke, despite the evidence from Price's amateur days that he could be vulnerable in the face of heavy artillery. It was as if a lot of the most fanatical Price fans just couldn't accept that a man of his size and power could be felled by such a slow and innocuous-looking shot as he was first time out. It couldn't be that Price was just brittle-chinned and not built for firefights, surely!? Anyway, the second fight was a dire capitulation and after that I think we all knew that Price was never likely to go beyond that kind of Commonwealth or lower European level.

 

I was at the fight in Liverpool. Remember with my mate looking at Thompson’s resume and saying to eachother that we think he could win. They played the national anthems before the fight which I thought was a bit over the top. We were laughing and buzzing with what we saw. The stadium was stunned. Price was very popular in Liverpool.

 

"I also remember being amazed at how heavily favoured Price was for the rematch."

Price was very much like Mike Tyson in this respect: people just wouldn't stop believing in the face of all evidence.

"after that (Thompson 2) I think we all knew that Price was never likely to go beyond that kind of Commonwealth or lower European level."

Hardly!

Favoured to beat Thompson (KO2 loss), favoured to win the rematch (KO5 loss), favoured to beat Teper (KO2 loss) and favoured to beat Hammer (KO7 loss). Amazing for a fighter who had never won above domestic level. The 2018 Povetkin fight was the first in 22-4 Price's career where he wasn't favoured.

 

I forgot the details of their fights except for the outcome, so I hit YT for their 2nd fight.
As someone noted above Price nearly won the rematch. Heading into the 5th I had Price up 3 pts (+2 for R2, +1 for R3, while R1 & 4 you could split or even call one of them even). Then Price gets into some difficulty in R5 and didn't know what to do. TT just threw methodical, punches from all angles - nothing fast - as Price just stayed right in from of TT trying to cover up. He couldn't clinch, throw a few counters, or move away to save his life. Just had no defense or survival skills when in any difficulty.

I do recall when he faced Povetkin years later. Pov looked like a CW compared to Price. He shook up Pov only to get brutally KOd. Big HW for this era with massive power but little else.

 

The first fight was a bit of a freakish punch.
The second fight Price KD'd him heavily but couldn't finish him, then gassed and got mauled. Lennox Lewis no doubt gave him terrible training and tactics too.
Definitely seemed to lose his confidence after that.
It wasn't wrong to hype Price as he was huge, could box pretty well and had big power.
If he'd been matched as carefully as Joshua, he probably could have got a title after Fury beat Wlad. People mock him, but do they think he couldn't KO Charles Martin? Even these guys like Ruiz, Parker etc., a confident (pre Thompson) Price who let his hands go would have been capable of taking them out on his night.
Thompson would have been big trouble for a younger Joshua too, a tall southpaw who could take some damage and had been in there with Wlad. I could see him grinding AJ down as well.

 

The fall of the House of Price