EXCLUSIVE – An old rival of Tyson Fury has backed ‘The Gypsy King’ to etch his name into history and become the unified world heavyweight champion.
Tyson Fury’s former rival David Price, who once beat the Gypsy King as an amateur, is backing his one-time heavyweight rival to weather the storm in his unified title bout versus Oleksandr Usyk and prevail. Price was effusive in his praise about his old foe as he predicted that the Brit will make history later this week.
Immortality awaits the winner of the contest on May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with only the second unified world heavyweight champion this century set to be crowned. Looking to follow in the footsteps of Lennox Lewis, who was the last fighter to earn the rare honour, the WBC, WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO all are on the line in one of the most anticipated match-ups in decades.
Previously scheduled for Feb. 17, the spectacle at the Kingdom Arena was pushed back to May after Fury suffered a gash to his face during training before the original date. However, opportunity now knocks for the Manchester-born colossus to solidify his legacy among the sport’s greats.
One unlikely backer ahead of his clash with Usyk comes in the form of former competitor, Price, who has tipped his old nemesis to dispatch of the Ukrainian. The Liverpudlian, who hung up his gloves in 2021, is uniquely placed to sized up Fury’s attributes, being a rare example of someone who has downed the 35-year-old.
That came while the pair were both amateur prospects in 2006, with Price rallying back from being knocked down in the second round of that contest to defeat Fury via a judge’s points decision. During an exclusive interview with Daily Express US Sports (arranged by Grosvenor Sport), the former Olympian was convinced that his old opponent will want to prove a point versus Usyk this month.
The current WBC heavyweight belt holder suffered a scare versus ex-UFC star Francis Ngannou in October, as he controversially won via a split points call. Now, Price has predicted: “I think if his head is in the right place after the Ngannou fight because I do think it will have felt like a defeat on some level for Tyson Fury, deep down. He got put down, he didn’t perform and it looked like he just scraped the win.
“A lot of people thought he lost and that will have hurt his pride and it will have dented his confidence a little bit. It might have been a blessing in disguise that he got given more time to prepare for this, but it might have been better for him to get back in there. I don’t know, it all depends on the individual.
“I think both of them are on the wrong side of 35 now and they’ll probably start to slow down a little bit, so neither have got the advantage in that capacity,” he continued. “I just think Tyson Fury is an expert at being the big man and I think he’ll use his size, his weight, his reach. I think he’ll probably be behind in the fight, but he’ll eventually come back and find a way to win late on, that’s how I’m seeing it, but anything can happen in heavyweight boxing.”
Casting his mind back 18 years to his bout with Fury, Price also detailed how he feels that his former contemporary has maximised his unconventional talents to establish himself as a bona fide generational fighter. He expalined: “He can do the textbook bit when he needs to, but what wins him fights is what can’t be taught and what’s in him instinctively. So, I’d never foreseen this.
“The biggest shock was when he beat Klitschko, after that, he’s just gone from strength to strength, it’s not a surprise now, because you’ve been at the top now for nearly ten years. It turns out that was one of his strengths to be honest, how unconventional he was, and how different he was, how loose he was and things like that. He’s not your typical boxer and over the years, it’s kind of like made me respect that style of fighter more, where they do things their way, he’s a bit unique.”
The pair now have put aside differences which characterised their relationship during the early years of their respective careers, building a respectful friendship outside of the ring. Price even recalled a couple of occasions since their meeting in 2006 where they have enjoyed each other’s company.
He continued: “Yeah I bumped into him at the airport, I was coming home from Denmark from a fight and I think he’d been on a family holiday, and we’ve seen him and at that time there was there was still a bitter needle, but not as much as there was. But we’d never crossed paths and no, I was never going to be confrontational at any point with Tyson Fury, not on the front foot anyway.
