Heavyweight shoot-out rumoured for big Belfast card

Carl Frampton electrified at Windsor Park on Saturday night and the TV cameras will be back in Belfast in less than seven weeks time.

The Titanic Exhibition Centre will play host to a card televised on BoxNation on Friday October 5th.

No fighters have been officially confirmed for the bill as of yet but there has been substantial speculation in boxing circles that the show will feature a heavyweight shoot-out between Liverpudlian David Price and Dublin’s Sean Turner.

A crossroads match-up between two fighters returning from heavy stoppage defeats, the rumoured clash between managerial stablemates has an element of ‘who lands first’ to it.

Former British and Commonwealth champ Price [22(18)-5(5)] almost shocked the boxing world back in March when he badly hurt Russian bad guy Alexander Povetkin, trading counts in the third round at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff before being brutally stopped himself in the fifth.

The 35-year-old Scouser, who won Olympic bronze in 2008, had a comeback pencilled in for last month but the massive puncher, one of the heaviest in boxing, was forced to withdraw the day beforehand with a back injury.

The Pete Taylor-trained Turner [12(8)-3(1)] ended 2017 well with a major stoppage win in Switzerland over Arnold Gjergjaj but has endured a tougher 2018. The Shankill slugger took a late-notice fight with Croatian star Filip Hrgovic, being outpointed over eight, before looking extremely out of sorts against England’s Nathan Gorman earlier this Summer when he was dropped and stopped in three rounds.

The 27-year-old ‘Big Sexy’ would be ceding massive height and reach advantages to Price if the match-up were to come to pass but would be looking to exploit the likeable English boxer’s conditioning and punch resistance, both of which have been found lacking in the past.

It should be stressed that has been no official confirmation for this fight but, if the Belfast boxing grapevine is to be believed, Irish fight fans are in for a battle of the big men this October.