10 Years Ago Today: Tony Thompson Beats David Price Again And Sends His Career Into A Tailspin

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

Can move this to boxing history.. sorry.

[Wake up call]

Wasn't just Price's career that went into a tailspin, it also ended up being Frank (now Kellie) Maloney's last ever promotion.

[Boxerbeetle]

Was this when the guy was playing Born in the USA on the saxophone? Or was that the first fight.

[The Gratest]

Was this when the guy was playing Born in the USA on the saxophone? Or was that the first fight.

Was it Price? No wonder he was so out of breath.

[HomicideHenry]

I was one of the very few who publicly stated he'd lose to Thompson the first time. I told Frannie Smith on the radio show we used to do that if his man could be temporarily pinned on ropes by Matt Skelton that Tony Thompson would knock Price out because he was nothing more than a tin man.

[handsofstone]

Was this when the guy was playing Born in the USA on the saxophone? Or was that the first fight.

Haha I forgot all about that, remember Thompson threatening to leave poor Mrs Thompson in a wheelchair with a broken hip after he had his wicked way with her

[DrDuke]

Easy to say now, but back than Price looked like exposed.

[mickey1975]

Price and Aj... The two can't miss heavies of their generation. The casuals lost the plot if you even dared suggest they weren't invincible! Strange times.

[skanksta]

When Thompson hit the deck first time in Fight 1, Price looked the future of HW boxing.
I remember thinking Fury was ducking him and wouldn't go as far. Obviously the fight continued, Price's flaws were revealed and his career was never the same again.
It's kinda like a rock star dying and staying a legend.

[Glass Joe]

Price was red-hot back then one arm punch shot and it was over. I went to the rematch on a lad's weekend. Joyce vs Zhang has a similar feel to Price - Thompson

[margaret thatcher]

Price and Aj... The two can't miss heavies of their generation. The casuals lost the plot if you even dared suggest they weren't invincible! Strange times.

aj world unified champ, casuals made a good pick

[margaret thatcher]

price offensively world class, shame about the chin, stamina, and mental game

tbf, even after the thompson fight his career had decent value. the losses to pov and hammer were fun fights. the win over ali was a crazy one. enjoyed him schooling allen to slow the ridiculous allen overrating that had started

[The Gratest]

Price and Aj... The two can't miss heavies of their generation. The casuals lost the plot if you even dared suggest they weren't invincible! Strange times.

aj world unified champ, casuals made a good pick

AJ seems to make quite a few lose the plot, he's right with that one.

[mickey1975]

Price and Aj... The two can't miss heavies of their generation. The casuals lost the plot if you even dared suggest they weren't invincible! Strange times.

aj world unified champ, casuals made a good pick

Without facing the top two of his era or he’d have a Price like record.

[The Gratest]

Zing!

[margaret thatcher]

Price and Aj... The two can't miss heavies of their generation. The casuals lost the plot if you even dared suggest they weren't invincible! Strange times.

aj world unified champ, casuals made a good pick

Without facing the top two of his era or he’d have a Price like record.

ya the unified hw world champion who beat klit, povetkin, parker, pulev, whyte, ruiz, takam, etc would really have a david price record. i'm sure he'd get ko'd by chris hammer, erkan teper, and delboy too

[mickey1975]

aj world unified champ, casuals made a good pick

Without facing the top two of his era or he’d have a Price like record.

ya the unified hw world champion who beat klit, povetkin, parker, pulev, whyte, ruiz, takam, etc would really have a david price record. i'm sure he'd get ko'd by chris hammer, erkan teper, and delboy too

Statically, very similar if he’d face those two.
On a more positive note, he will be nearer Fury in the early wins if he stops Dillian as expected.

[margaret thatcher]

right, im sure in some private fantasy land of yours he's david price and not the former unified heavyweight champ of the world

hell, why not make him tom dallas? it's your world my man

[TheLeprechaun]

price offensively world class, shame about the chin, stamina, and mental game

tbf, even after the thompson fight his career had decent value. the losses to pov and hammer were fun fights. the win over ali was a crazy one. enjoyed him schooling allen to slow the ridiculous allen overrating that had started

His power was his main attribute. At the time it seemed like he could KO people any time he landed a right hand. He didn't have a great jab or left hand, didn't go to the body much, didn't have great defensive tactics. It was just fencing and timing the right hand, countering with the right hand and he was starting to bring an intimidation factor to the fights and Fury did buy into it for me. I think he relinquished the British title to avoid price? The title he was crying after he won. Obviously he would have beat Price outside of getting clipped early but we didn't know that at the time. One thing that raised my eyebrows was they had Price commentating on one of Wlads fights and they showed him in the stadium asking him if he fancied a shot at Wlad and he looked like a deer in the headlights as he made some excuse about not being ready.

You're the hottest thing coming through in boxing and have a prime chance to call for a title shot and you're showing a lack of confidence and bottle. It didn't come across like he was saying get more fights, build up to it etc. It came off like "I'm not in that league". I suppose he knew his level from being on the amateur circuit and I saw a couple of heavy punches making his legs go and requiring a count and a stoppage in a couple of contests. He knew the euro circuit well. I wouldn't be surprised if he had been handed his a*se in sparring around Europe on some occasions. Pulev for example?

[margaret thatcher]

he always had the diddly pawing jab that's true, but when he wasn't put into a shell, especially before the thompson losses, his offense was nicely mixed. left hooks and body shots and uppercuts in there along with the big right. i think it was a left hook that turned pov to jelly briefly and the uppers that put hammer and big john on their butts. i think he also ko'd skelton on the way up with body shots, or at least dropped him with them.

but progressively he got more and more tentative with all his shots and reduced more to just the paws and ocassional pulled power shot. the sokolowski fight it's really obvious, even against a tough guy but still a journeyman he was so nervous and afraid to commit. for a guy whose big strength is his offense that is basically a death curse.

though i guess vs dave allen, allen was so crude and limited that pulled shots and pawing jabs were enough to school him

[Greg Houston]

I remember thinking Fury was ducking him and wouldn't go as far. Obviously the fight continued, Price's flaws were revealed and his career was never the same again.

I felt the same at the time. I think for me it was the way Price had one punch knockout power, whilst Fury wore his opponents down in his stoppage wins. It seemed though, that Price relied too much on that and when he couldn't get Thompson out of there early he ran out of gas. I was at the rematch and remember him going full throttle then just suddenly stopping like he had no energy left at all. I also remember a weird moment when the ref decided to give him a standing eight count, which went against the rules and seemed to be an effort to help Price get something back.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Did he ever show weak chin signs prior to the first Thompson fight?

[margaret thatcher]

he had a long history of being hurt as an amateur, it was well documented

he was also hurt in his debut, although it was a bit of a cheap shot when he wasnt looking if i recall

[The Gratest]

I was trying to find the video of Cammarelle stopping him in the 2nd at Bejing.
I did find Cammarelle dropping and stopping Zhang.