David Price shared the ring with several heavy-handed foes during his high-profile career, but one stood out above the rest.
The 6ft 8in British giant was an extremely talented amateur, but struggled to replicate his successes in the pros.
In the unpaid ranks, Price picked up a Bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics, a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and won three national senior titles.
A year before he topped the podium in Melbourne, beating future unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in the north-west final of the ABA seniors on points.
Fury had Price down on the canvas in the second round, but the Liverpudlian rebounded well to beat his compatriot by a margin of 22:8.
The pair came close to fighting in the pros, but Price’s back-to-back losses to Tony Thompson in 2013 derailed the domestic dust-up.
Three years before his fight with Fury fell through, stories emerged claiming that Price had knocked out Anthony Joshua in sparring, which AJ has since confirmed to be true.
However, he was unable to beat anyone near the Watford powerhouse’s level in the pros.
The best win of his 31-fight career (25-6) came against Audley Harrison, while he was knocked out by Derek Chisora and Alexander Povetkin.
Chisora and Povetkin were among six men to render Price unconscious in the pros, yet neither of them earned the distinction of being the hardest puncher Price had faced.
“I sparred a Russian called Denis Boytsov in Germany once,” he told the Daily Star.
“He only hit the top of my head, but he was a powerful puncher.
GettyNobody hit Price harder than Boytsov[/caption]
Denis Boystov – FacebookThe Russian was hospitalised after a gang attack in 2015 and never fought again[/caption]
“I think he got his career cut short, he got absolutely battered by a gang of Russian fellas and left for dead, he couldn’t fight again.
“But I remember him being a really powerful puncher.”
Denis Boytsov compiled a 36-1 record as a pro but had his career cut short when he was beaten up and left for dead by a German gang.
Boytsov was found unconscious in a Berlin subway tunnel in May 2015.
He was rushed to hospital and placed into a medically induced coma for seven weeks due to severe head injuries.
Boystov thankfully survived the ordeal, although he hasn’t returned to the ring since.
