➤ So when will Whyte get his shot?
Wilder is next due to defend his title
against Luis Ortiz, of Cuba, a bout that
the latest murmurs from America suggest
will not take place until late November.
That would make February 22, which has
been claimed to be the target date for a
rematch between Wilder and Tyson Fury,
seem unlikely.
All of which pushed Whyte’s position
back even farther, even before you factor
in suggestions for rumours that his deal
with the champion is for two fights. One
more fight for Whyte? Two? No wonder
he seemed underwhelmed.
The best news of the night came
in the form of a post on Twitter by
Darren Barker, trainer of Dave Allen,
reporting the heavyweight in good healthin hospital after he left the ring on a
stretcher after his fight with David Price.
The 10 rounds of action that had
preceded the rather worrying conclusion
had made a complete mockery of the
bookmakers’ decision to make Allen
a strong favourite in his scheduled
12-rounder with Price.
Price won an Olympic bronze medal,
had held the British and Commonwealth
titles. He had advantages over Allen in
size, power, experience and pedigree.
Class is permanent, as the quote most
regularly attributed to Bill Shankly, famed
manager of Price’s favourite football team,
reminds us.
If Allen did have a plan to beat Price,
he lacked the tools to put it into action.
Price won the fight at distance, he wonthe fight up close, using his jab well and
landing a series of hard shots almost at
will.
Allen, from Doncaster, greeted many of
Price’s best punches with a slight shrug.
He could find no other response. Marcus
McDonnell, the referee, accepted Allen’s
retirement after the 10th round.
It has become popular to knock Price
in recent times. But while the 36-year-old
from Liverpool punches as hard as any
heavyweight and has an excellent jab,
four of his six defeats were against boxers
who were guilty of a doping offence.
Tyson Fury once vacated the British and
Commonwealth titles rather than go
through with a purse bid to face Price.
Dereck Chisora continues to enjoy a
remarkable Indian summer to his career
as he wiped out Artur Szpilka in the
second round. It was a brutal finish as
referee Mark Lyson’s tardy intervention
left the Pole a sitting target for a ruthless
Chisora.
Few heavyweights can have been
written off as much as Chisora, who seven
years ago this month did not have a
licence or seemingly much of a future in
the sport when he was comprehensively
beaten by David Haye. Whyte knocked
him cold at the end of their arduous
rematch in the same ring in December,
but this was already his second win since
then. At 35, he is becoming an enduring
fixture of the heavyweight scene.
Szpilka, 30, had gone nine rounds
with Wilder for the WBC title in 2016,
but Chisora was in no mood for him to
hang around. Early in the second round,14 lBOXING NEWSlJULY 25, 2019 http://www.boxingnewsonline.netACTION
CLASS TELLS:
Price dishes
out a lesson
to gutsy AllenPhotos: ACTION IMAGES/ANDREW COULDRIDGE
BRUTAL:
A resurgent Chisora
takes care of
Szpilka