Great things can come in big packages. David Price, the 6ft 9in super-heavyweight, produced one of the best performances in the history of Great Britain Olympic boxing history when he twice knocked down Islam Timurziev, the world No 1 super-heavyweight, stopping him in the second round.

When the draw was made last Friday, Price received the worst of it, being paid with a bull of a Russian who has had most of the world of amateur boxing quaking. But Price, who only qualified for the Olympics at the final attempt, picked the right punches at the right time to take the matter out of the hands of the judges.

“I can’t believe what has just happened,” Price, who upset some BBC viewers when his celebratory scream of “bastard!” was picked up by television microphones. “The referee did me a favour by stopping it, but one more big punch and it was over anyway. No one does that to him, he has never been put on the floor, but my right hand has come along so much.” Price boxed cagily in the first round and seemed unlucky to be 2-0 down after it, but started the second in sensational style, dropping Timurziev to his haunches with a short right hook.

After a count, Timurziev, the European champion, was sent to the floor again by a clubbing right hook to the side of the head. He was up at three, but the referee stopped the bout after 31 seconds of the round.

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“He committed with the right hand, and I felt a real crunch when I connected. I could feel it bone on bone when I landed on his chin and his weight coming forward helped the punch. And second time, a big right hook around the back of the head put him down and he was gone.” Price, 25, will now face Jaroslav Jaksto, of Lithuania, for a medal on Monday.

“I can relax a bit more the first one is out of the way,” he said. “It was going to be my hardest one on paper, but I have just got to take one fight at a time and I know if I beat the Lithuanian, I’ve got a medal.

“I’ve beaten the world No 1, but styles make fights and that style suits me. But the next one’s a different style of fighter and we’ll watch the video and work on it. I owe him one from when I was a kid. He beat me then when I was a bit mentally weak and I turned the corner after that.” Today is crucial in the ring with Billy Joe Saunders, the 18-year-old welterweight, Tony Jeffries, the light-heavyweight, Bradley Saunders, the light-welterweight, all bidding for a place in the quarter-finals.

All the super-heavyweights were in action last night, which means there was probably a future world heavyweight champion or title challenger among them. So remember the names, if you can, Vyacheslav Glazkov, of Ukraine, Ruslan Myrsatayev, of Kazakhstan, and Zhang Zhilei, an impressive southpaw from China.

Don King, the promoter, is in town and had he come along, his mouth would have been watering at the talent on show. Not least at the big man from Liverpool.