Price is doing it for the money

DAVID PRICE is refreshingly honest when asked why he keeps stepping into the ring.

In a sport full of hype, the blunt Liverpudlian does not shy away from admitting why he will fight for the 31st time on Saturday.

“There is still money to be earned and that is my priority,” said the 2008 Olympic bronze medallist. “It’s money I need.

“I’ve got a growing family, I want to try to set up businesses, get security for the future and get what I can out of the sport.

“My main aim now is to earn as much as possible between now and when I retire.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush. It’s as simple as that.”

This is not another story of a boxer who has gone broke. At 36, Price is not skint and he is not fighting to keep away the bailiffs. Far from it.

He faces Dave Allen at the O2 – on the undercard of Dillian Whyte’s clash with Oscar Rivas – having suffered in recent fights.

Defeat to Allen, a domesticlevel heavyweight at best, would surely spell the end.

When Price knocked out 13 of his first 15 opponents he looked destined for big things.

But then he went up against American Tony Thompson and his world turned upside down. Thompson stopped him twice.

The American duly failed a drugs test, as did the next man to beat him, Erkan Teper, and Price said: “I have had six defeats, a couple of them have been drugs cheats. I’ve had two knockout defeats where I’ve been knocked out, a couple of stoppage defeats when I’ve run out of gas, an injury, but they’ve all been to decent opponents.

“I don’t like having to explain why I still fight – it should be explanatory, it’s my job. The times I did step up to world level it didn’t work out but I’m fine with that.

“I’m an Olympic bronze medallist, former British and Commonwealth champion. I’m in my prime, I feel great.

“There are fighters out there who have been knocked out a lot more than me.”