David Price suffered fractured nose and needed 42 stiches to face in Povetkin fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Marcus Richardson

David Price took a lot of punishment to the face in his 5th round knockout loss to former WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin last Saturday night at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

Price (22-5, 18 KOs) was knocked out after getting badly hurt from a right hand from Povetkin, and then a left hook that put him down in round 5. It was an exciting fight while it lasted, but it didn’t end well for Price, whose career is now looking all but finished.

The Price-Povetkin fight took place on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker card on Sky Box Office.

The 6’8” Price was frozen and completely out on his feet after the 38-year-old Povetkin nailed him with a hard right hand to the head in the 5th. The referee never had a chance to step in and stop the fight before Povetkin landed a left hook to the head that dropped Price. This was the second time Price had been knocked down by Povetkin in the fight. Two rounds earlier, Povetkin had dropped Price with a left hook that he didn’t see coming and it put him on the seat of his pants.

After the fight, Price revealed that he needed 42 stiches to close cuts inside his mouth and around his eyes.

“After the fight, I got checked over in the medical room at the stadium, and they said it would be better to just go to hospital. I agreed, to be safe, and they gave me the all-clear,” Price said to Talksport. “I had a fractured nose, had 30 stitches in my mouth and about 12 stitches on my eyes.”

Povetkin did so much damage to Price’s face in just five rounds of action, and he didn’t hit him a lot. Price was fighting on the outside through most of the short bout, and not taking a lot of head shots. Povetkin was landing to the body frequently, but when he did get past Price’s high guard, he was able to do a lot of damage to him.

It was a gamble for the 34-year-old Price to take the fight with Povetkin. Price was stepping way above his class in facing the talented former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin and 2004 Olympic gold medalist. If the gamble had paid off for Price, he’d be the WBA mandatory challenger to world champion Anthony Joshua and he’d be looking at life-changing money against him. Price unfortunately failed, and now he’s back where he was before the fight as a domestic level heavyweight with a not too bright future outlook.

Hello everyone just letting you know all is OK,” Price said on his social media. ”I took this fight and understood the risks involved, but if you don’t have a go, you’ll never know. I’m proud I put it all on the line in front of a massive audience and I’d do it all again. Loved every minute,” Price said.

Price came into the match with Povetkin as a big underdog, so it’s not surprising that he wound up losing. A lot of boxing fans felt that Price wouldn’t make it past the 3rd round, but he proved those fans wrong by lasting until the 5th. Price hurt Povetkin with a left hook in the 3rd round that caused him to stumble backwards several steps into the ropes. The referee ruled it a knockdown because the ropes held Povetkin up from falling down.

Povetkin was off balance when he was hit with Price’s left hook, which he put a lot of power into. That was the only round in which Price appeared to fight with conviction. That was the old Price that boxing fans remembered from the early part of his career. He hasn’t been that fighter since 2013, when he was beaten twice by Tony Thompson.

Despite Price losing to Povetkin, he gave a good performance and showed some promise in that fight in terms of his punching power. The only things that were missing from Price was his punch resistance and a little more aggression. Price wasn’t aggressive enough in the rounds that counted for him to win the fight. The only round that Price fought with anger was the 3rd. If Price had fought like that for the entire fight, he would have had a good chance of winning the contest, because Povetkin didn’t look great at any time in the fight. He looked like a 38-year-old, who had lost a few steps.

“I’m proud of my performance,” said Price. “I gave everything I had to give, and I came close, closer than the knockout made it look.”

Price hasn’t said what he plans on doing with his career. Many boxing fans are hoping that Price retires, as he’s now been knocked out 5 times in the last 5 years in loses to Tony Thompson, Christian Hammer, Erkan Teper and Povetkin. It’s not likely that Price is going to be put in the position again to become a mandatory challenger to Joshua. Unless Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn gives Price an undeserved title shot without him doing anything to rate the fight, he’s likely to never fight for a title. If Price could beat two or three contenders in the division, he’d receive a high enough ranking for Joshua to give him a title shot for a voluntary defense. It would be a long shot for Price to beat even the lower ranked contenders in the top 15. He lost to Christian Hammer recently, and he’s little more than a lower level heavyweight.

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