Kash Ali apologizes for biting David Price: ‘There’s no excuses for it’

Badlefthook.com

It was a busy Saturday in boxing, and a bit of a weird one, too, but nothing was stranger than what happened in the heavyweight fight from Liverpool, where veteran David Price fought Kash Ali, who was hoping to graduate from the small hall circuit in the United Kingdom.

By now, you’ve surely heard about how it ended: Ali tackled Price down in the fifth round after being buzzed by a right hand, and then bit him hard on the stomach, causing a disqualification.

Ali (15-1, 7 KO) spoke with iFL TV backstage after the fight, and offered his apologies.

“It was out of order what happened,” he told Kugan Cassius. “I thought it was a good fight. I had him hurt in the fifth, I could’ve stopped him, which I would’ve — I ended up wrestling him down. Stupid thing, what I did. Ridiculous. There’s no excuses for it.”

While it may sound like Ali is grasping at straws if you didn’t see the fight, he’s not, really. Price (24-6, 19 KO) had hit empty on the gas tank in the fifth round, and was looking ready to go if Ali could capitalize with a decent shot or two.

Instead, Price landed a right hand that shook Ali, who responded absurdly and put his chances of ever getting on a notable boxing card again in serious jeopardy.

“I think just the build-up for the fight — it’s my first time boxing on a big stage, I was so pumped up, I just wanted to fight,” Ali said. “The street mentality kicked in. That was stupid. The worst thing is, it’s not like I was behind or getting my ass kicked or nothing. He even said to me afterwards, ‘You had me beat there.’ I just apologize to all the fans. I’m sorry to everyone. It won’t happen again.”

Asked what was going through his head, he tried to explain, while admitting there was no reasonable explanation.

“When I ended up on top of him, I’m just thinking — this is fucking stupid — boxing went out the window, I thought, ‘This is a fight now,’” he said. “I should’ve kept my cool and thought about getting back up and knocking him out. But it was stupid. I have nothing else to say. It was out of order, and I apologize to him.”

We’ll have to see if the 27-year-old Ali will ever get invited back onto a major show, but I’d have my doubts.

There is the argument that he’s more famous now than he’s ever been before, and boxing has sold a lot of “bad boy” fighters over its time. But Ali doesn’t have any credibility to go along with poor behavior, either, and that hurts his chances immensely.

Without any actual boxing credibility, it’s not as if you’d be throwing him in with Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury — actually, let’s maybe not give Top Rank any ideas — for a money fight or something. Andrew Golota may have assaulted Riddick Bowe’s balls, but Bowe was one of the top name fighters in the world and it was a big-time main event, one that led to another groin-bashing, that time on pay-per-view. This was no Bowe-Golota. There’s no real interest in a rematch or anything.

Honestly, if Ali had just stayed in there normal and even wound up losing to Price, he probably would’ve been invited in the future to test out some heavyweight prospects in the UK, a position he may have been able to hold for years to come. But right now, all that’s really known about him is he’s a club fighter who fouls a good bit — which he did before the fight-finishing bite — and might bite the opponent or who knows what else if he gets cracked. Promoters and managers protect prospects on the way up, and putting one in with that type of opponent carries risks that just may not be worth the trouble. Everyone makes mistakes, but this one may have cost Ali any chance at much of a boxing career.