Virgil van Dijk should fight an Arsenal player who a former boxer claims does his head in

EXCLUSIVE: David Price has urged Virgil van Dijk to go toe-to-toe with an Arsenal defender in the boxing ring.

The former British champion is excited to attend a Night to Remember 2 at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool, UK, on April 17, where ex-footballers will swap the boots for the gloves in a series of fights that will raise money for Children’s Charity Merseyside and Autism Merseyside.

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David Price calls for Virgil van Dijk vs Gabriel

With the upcoming event creating a series of interesting showdowns, including Chris Iwelumo vs Lee Trundle, we asked David Price to give us his dream match-up between any footballers of his choosing.

After much consideration, there were two players he’d love to see battle it out inside the squared circle.

In his exclusive interview with Sporf, he chuckled: “I’d pick Wayne Rooney. Actually, no, because he has done a bit of boxing. He thinks he’s a hard case, but he’s not. Who is that Arsenal defender who does my head in? Gabriel! Let’s do him vs Virgil van Dijk.”

David Price is backing Bradley Orr to win his boxing match against ex-Wolves goalkeeper

Price is a very close friend of ex-QPR and Blackburn Rovers right-back, Bradley Orr, who’ll be going head-to-head with Carl Ikeme. Price featured at a press conference to promote the event, where he made an amusing comment about the final game of his short-lived football career.

He later told Sporf: “I had an eight-a-side game on the astro turf. I gave myself Man of the Match, that’s a joke because my mate Bradley Orr was sitting next to me. I always like exaggerating how good I was at football because we were on the same team at school, and he went on to play in the Premier League. But I did really play well in that game. Sadly, though, I couldn’t walk for a week after it. Following that, I thought, ‘I’m not playing anymore’. Plus, I’m too big.”

Jokes aside, Price is fully in Orr’s corner for his battle against Ikeme.

He explained: “Bradley Orr is one of my closest mates. We go back 30 years. He was one of my biggest supporters in my boxing career. I can’t wait to support him and work with him in the build-up. I’m looking forward to seeing what he thinks of it. Even the lads I don’t know, I’m there to support all of them because you have to take your hat off to them; most of them are getting in a boxing ring with no prior experience. They’re having a ten-week training camp — when I was a kid, I was in the gym for a year before I got put in a boxing ring. Obviously, these are grown men, so it’s different, but it takes something to do that, so I respect them, and I’m here to support all of them.”

Featured Image Credit: Getty