Price is right for British boxing glory after destroying Russia's finest

Price twice dumped Russia's reigning European champion Islam Timurziev on his knees in the second round, landing two powerful right handers that caused Referee Jiabo Wang to stop the fight, much to the dazed fighter's disgust.

Blue beauty: David Price (right) lands a blow on Islam Timurziev on the way to knocking out the Russian

A party of ten family and friends will now re-confirm their flights to China to watch the 6' 8" Liverpudlian - nicknamed 'Dynamite Dave' - try to win three more bouts to emulate Audley Harrison's feat of eight years ago and take gold in the same division.

'All my family have got something to come out for now, they probably wouldn't have come if I'd lost but they'll be here Monday morning and I'll be fighting Monday night,' said the 25-year-old former central heating engineer.

'That was going to be my hardest one on paper and I can relax a bit now. Nobody does that to him. I'm going to watch it on video all night.'

Not only is Price, described admiringly by Amir Khan as 'a proper heavyweight', just one fight away from a medal, but the senior figure in the British boxing team also steadied the whole team after a wobbly start.

This might even be termed a captain's innings after the Frankie Gavin debacle and Joe Murray's controversial first round exit when head coach Terry Edwards accused the judges of bias.

The marking again looked suspect when Price finished the first round 2-0 down, although there is no doubt he received an authentic blow to the head just before the klaxon went.

David Price celebrates

Certainly there was no obvious hint of what would unfold in the 31 seconds after the restart in a sparsely populated Workers' Gymnasium, save for a very vocal advance party of his supporters from home.

"Maybe I gave him a little too much respect in the first round," admitted Price. " I wanted to feel what he was all about. He caught me with a big right hander and after that I knew I could take his power. I was going to do him anyway."

Reflecting on his first knockdown blow he said, "I felt my knuckles crunch on him, bone on bone with his chin. The second one was a huge right hook round the back of his head."

Price, who belied his status as the last qualifier for the 16-man main draw, now meets Lithuania's Jaroslav Jatsko. "I owe him one from the juniors," said the 17 stone five giant, who will not need to fix too many more radiators if next week works out as planned. "They are all beatable but I've got take this one at a time."

For Edwards, who will today be supporting Billie Joe Saunders, Brad Saunders (no relation) and Tony Jeffries in their round of 16 bouts, there was the feeling that he might have seen something similar before.

"I suddenly felt a bit of deja vu there because Audley also beat the European champion (another Russian, Alexei Levin) by stopping him," said Edwards, who was nonetheless reluctant to make comparisons.

"Audley was a different man in a different era, but this guy is good," he said. "Over the last 18 months David has got a lot stronger, has matured alot and is hitting much, much harder.

"He is the real deal when he gets it right. That was a very difficult one in terms of pressure and it just shows how mentally strong he has become.

"Yesterday the camp was a bit down after what happened to Joe but the captain has done his job and lifted everyone else."