David Price is looking ahead to this year positively.
The 35-year-old will fight in his home city of Liverpool for the first time in more than three years on March 30.
Price will feature as part of the supporting cast to Liam Smith’s clash against Sam Eggington at the newly-named M&S Bank Arena, exclusively live on Sky Sports in the UK and DAZN in the States.
And the former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion is excited about a year that comes after a win.
“The fight will come 10 years to the weekend since I turned pro and I haven’t even had 30 fights yet,” said Price, whose final of three fights in 2018 was a stoppage win over Tom Little at the O2 Arena in London back in December.
“The hardest thing about this card will be that we stop saying ‘It’s in the ECHO [Arena],’ but I still call Snickers a Marathon, so I’m going to struggle.
“As much as I get people telling me it’s time to pack in, I’ve not really got much mileage on the clock, that’s the truth. I’ve had six knockout defeats and two of them have been genuine. The other four, I’ve kind of beat myself in those fights.”
The Joe McNally-trained fighter, whose career has been a topsy-turvy rollercoaster by his own admission, now feels he has his best years yet to come, despite having been defeated half-a-dozen times.
“The older I’m getting, I’m getting more wise and mature and I honestly still believe my best years are yet to come,” Price continued. “Yes, I haven’t got many years left, but I’m looking after myself, I’m living the life and with maturity, this could be where I perform to my best.
“I was fast-tracked early on in my career because I had a good amateur pedigree and then I just hit a wall. In losing, you can pick up massive experience and I’ve lost six times, so if I’m not experienced from losing, I never will be. The experience comes from being defeated, being at your lowest, and knowing how to deal with it.”
Despite defeats to Alexander Povetkin and his Russian counterpart Sergey Kuzmin most recently last September, Price believes the next 12 months will ensure we see some of his best performances yet.
“Perseverance is going to pay off. Results aside, last year was a great year because I had two massive fights on massive shows which we may never see the like of again in our lifetime.
“Eighteen months ago, that just wasn’t going to happen because I was on the scrap heap. I was given two gifted opportunities, the results didn’t go my way, but I ended the year on a win and it has opened up this year that I’m coming into positively.
“This year holds a lot of promise for me.
“I’m not saying I’ll win a world title or even be in world title fights, but there are so many big names in the division, who all need dance partners, and there is no reason why, with a couple more wins, I can’t throw myself in the mix.
“The opportunity is here to do it, I appreciate it greatly and I intend on delivering.”
Article by: Elliot Foster