At a somewhat unusual time – Sunday evening – he’ll enter the famous football ground at Goodison Park where he’ll face the lanky Briton David Price (19-3-0, 16 KOs). For the Liverpool native, this will be the second encounter in which he’ll have to face a Czech boxer.
Two years ago, the 6 feet 8 inches tall bronze medallist from the Beijing Olympics had been challenged by the then premier Czech heavyweight Ondrej Pala (33-5-0, 23 KOs), who actually managed to score a knockdown against the Briton but eventually succumbed to him in three rounds.
“My preparation and mental shape weren’t on the level required to beat him. Also, the knockdown which I scored in the very first round actually worked against me as I stopped following my gameplan,” admitted Pala to Profiboxing.cz a short time removed from the bout in early 2016.
Now it’s his successor on the Czech heavyweight throne who’ll have his crack at beating Price. “It’s fresh news for me, just like it is for you. Of course, I’m looking forward to it. I’m already in preparation since I was going to fight Michael Wallisch either on July 4 or at the end of this month. In other words, I already have the required bulk of training behind me and unlike the fight with Wallisch, which was scheduled for twelve rounds, this fight will only be an eight-rounder,” said Pejsar to Profiboxing.cz.
He was originally planning a trip to Prague this week to have some sparrings with Pala. “I was really looking forward to it as I was eager to finally clash with a real opponent, but now it seems I’ll have to cancel this meeting. But then again, I’ll probably travel to Prague anyway as I want to get some tips from him on fighting Price and exploiting his weak spots. I already know his chin is not the sturdiest one, so I believe I can hit it with some shots of my own,“ added the Plzen native.
The 31-year old protege of Miroslav Pek is actually a substitute opponent for Price, who’s returning after last year’s controversial stoppage loss to drug cheater Erkan Teper (a fighter who Pejsar is somewhat similar to stylewise). According to BoxRec.com, Price was originally scheduled to face the Croat Jakov Gospic (17-14-0, 12 KOs) – the same Gospic who actually refused to be the Shannon Briggs’ dancing partner last weekend in order to focus on his bout with Price.
“I’m not going there for money. I don’t want to follow the fate of the many Czech boys who have fought abroad. Instead, I want to achieve something. If I knew I wasn’t in shape, I wouldn’t be taking the fight. After all, that’s what I told you I did last year before the Dereck Chisora bout, so if it was the same with Price, I would’ve refused it again,” added Pejsar.
“I got a call that the fight is being negotiated, although not yet signed. But I’m positive it will happen. Not counting the Wallisch bout and the eventual fight for the WBO European title, this is the first concrete offer we got. Everything else that appeared either on various Czech websites or Facebook is just plain talk and fiction,” added the matchmaker Lukas Konecny, who’s put together this fight.
To have this report complete: the Wallisch vs. Pejsar fight eventually fell through mainly due to the Czech fighter’s inability to comply with the WBO European rankings. However, if he were to beat Price, who’s taking this fight merely as a preparation for his upcoming British title bout against the aforementioned Chisora, he wouldn’t be in just for a big move in the WBO rankings.
