• Heavyweight

Price: I will gain revenge on Thompson

David Price says he has not stopped thinking about his defeat to Tony Thompson © PA Photos

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Price hires Klitschko sparring partners
  

British heavyweight David Price is determined to avenge his only career loss when he faces Tony Thompson in a rematch at the Liverpool Echo Arena on July 6.

Liverpudlian Price will enter the ring on his 30th birthday looking to inflict revenge on American Thompson, who shocked the Brit with a surprise right hook which gained him the victory in their February bout.

Reflecting on the second round defeat in his native Liverpool, Price admitted that the result had rattled his confidence and kept him awake at night.

"It did shake me up and I was gutted," Price told the Liverpool Echo. "I put a brave face on and tried my best not to feel sorry for myself.

"It is human nature: if you have a setback it is going to affect your confidence but it is how you overcome it.

"I didn't shed a tear but I was trying to keep myself busy and my mind occupied, doing anything I could to not think about it. But when I went to bed at night I was just laying there thinking about it non-stop."

However, Price insists the defeat will make him a stronger fighter and that avenging the only loss in his 16 professional bouts to date will carve the path to becoming one of Britain's leading heavyweights.

"I still think about it now but nowhere near as much because I can't look back," Price added. "This fight is going to define my career in terms of how I come back from such a devastating defeat.

"When I win this rematch it will make people sit up and take notice over how I've responded in adversity and that is going to prove I am going on to become a great heavyweight.

"Without bad times you wouldn't know good times. It was a bad time but it will make victory on July 6 the best feeling ever. I do believe I am going to redeem myself."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.