I KO’d AJ in sparring, beat Fury in amateurs – Price

DAVID Price was once widely regarded as the UK’s top heavyweight prospect, and for good reason.

  The power-punching youngster won Olympic bronze at Beijing 2008 and established himself as superior to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua at the time.

  Price had an age advantage over the pair as he is now 39, while Fury is 34 and Joshua 33.

  His first rivalry came against the youthful Gypsy King when they were both amateur boxers competing to represent Team GB in Beijing.

  Price came out on top when they fought, though they would never end up having a rematch as professionals.

  Fury wrote in his autobiography about the bout: “I knew I was coming to the end of my amateur days.

  “I would eventually have 31 wins from 35 bouts and I would say that only one of those defeats was genuine – when I lost to my fellow British boxer, David Price in the north-west final of the ABA seniors competition in Manchester in 2006.

  “I had Price on the canvas in the second round with a good shot, but he clearly outpointed me. His experience was the decisive factor.”

  Price told the Liverpool Echo: “It’s not something I’m going to dine out on, beating Tyson Fury when he was 18.”

  “But I was a young man myself and he was a world bronze medallist at the time. If you watch the fight it was a good fight.

  “I had to be near my best to beat him the way I did because he has obviously proven since how good he is, but even then he had something about him.

  Midway through that unbeaten run in 2010, Price recruited a young Joshua for sparring as AJ was aiming to follow in his footsteps and represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics.

  Price recalled to iD Boxing, “I think I’d had about six pro fights and he was double ABA champion I think.

  “I went up to Sheffield because I was on my first ten round fight, and I’d always struggle for sparring…

  “I just caught him with a big right hand and down he went. He had to get helped up, type of thing, and ushered out the ring.

  Joshua later confirmed the story and explained: “I had come out of a police cell the day I went up to training. I won’t use it as an excuse.

  “Got nicked on the way up to training camp, for trouble.

  “Got out Saturday and I went up there. I started sparring as soon as I got up there, straight from the station.”

  I do think he was very good at the time, very strong. And I was making too many mistakes.

  “Those circumstances don’t help when you’re sparring an elite fighter.”

  Sadly for Price, he would go on to be stopped by Tony Thompson twice, Erkan Teper, Christian Hammer, Alexander Povetkin, Sergey Kuzmin and Derek Chisora before retiring in 2021 without even challenging for a world title.