BoxRec

Well done Matt Skelton! Hopefully Fwank can unleash Skelton into some big fights on the continent and in the states before he really does get too old.

BAMBI wrote:who was this during the fight? " stop" "no please" "no"...and repeat all that for 45 mins..

The ref. He was irritating me too.

Matt proved three things in particular last night, he is better than most gave him credit for, he is definately Euro level and he also has a massive heart - Matt did extremely well staying 12 gruelling rounds with the champion who landed some pretty heavy stuff at times -I think Chagaev found Matt awkward which spoiled his performance - I had Chagaev winning by four rounds with the point deducted - A very good effort by Skelton who could have won if the right punch landed but a points win was never going to happen for him.

Matt needs to be given some good fights. He does not need to fight any British heavy anymore.

Well I would realy like to see some real unification fights now rather than all of the fighters trying to find with respect the easyest options for there defences. I think that is the only thing which will help the sport. No one can name the world champions at the moment and in the space of 3 fights we could have a clear one.

I for one was surprisingly impressed by Matt's technique especially early as he feinted for Chagaev to lead and countered him before reverting to type as the hunter and was subsequently picked off at times. He showed a good jab and right uppercut and got in some sneaky, fast right hands. We all know he is a brawler and has good stamina but as i say his technique looked better than expected. Fair play to him anyway, he didn't disgrace himself and we look forward to the next big one next week in Germany, Sylvester V Bastient....

No wait i mean Povetkin V Chambers

Great effort from Matt Skelton last night. I couldnt tell who won - really crap signal from Shitanta, the last few rounds were very blurred, and I didnt see the last round at all!
Chag looked to have a bit more class, but Skelton showed tremendous heart and chin, best losing title tilt in the HW division I've seen from a Brit

skelton's effort couldn't be faulted.

chagaev picked him off with the clean stuff though.

pretty convincing win for chagaev in the end.

i still see povetkin really shaking things up later this year.

he'll beat klitschko and clean up i reckon.

Skelton not only boxed a good fight, he showed enormous class in his post fight comments.

He deserves to be well-regarded.

PS he earned £100 K before expenses and taxes

hitman_hatton1 wrote:skelton's effort couldn't be faulted.

chagaev picked him off with the clean stuff though.

pretty convincing win for chagaev in the end.

i still see povetkin really shaking things up later this year.

he'll beat klitschko and clean up i reckon.

Its official!

PUT ALL YOU HAVE ON KLITSHKO!

DG. wrote:

hitman_hatton1 wrote:skelton's effort couldn't be faulted.

chagaev picked him off with the clean stuff though.

pretty convincing win for chagaev in the end.

i still see povetkin really shaking things up later this year.

he'll beat klitschko and clean up i reckon.

Its official!

PUT ALL YOU HAVE ON KLITSHKO!

no messing on this povetkin.

strong and good in combinations.

just the ticket to get wlad out of his rhythm.

Unlike others who have talked the talk and made fortunes off the back of it I have never ever heard Matt Skelton ONCE state he was going to be champion of the world.

Now don't get me wrong, he MIGHT have done......but that's the thing, if he has, you have to look for it. I come on this forum watch all kind of shows in person and on TV and get BN every week and sometimes an odd BM.

And yet there he was last night giving it a right old British go on foreign soil and comfortably survived to hear the last bell. He expended every ounce of energy in doing so and didn't get his head taken off as one or 2 boxreccers thought he might do.

Well done Matt on doing yourself and Britain proud! Also the trainer put it a pretty exceptional stint in keeping his man going too, so credit there to the team.

Horrible fight.

Why the hell did they have a ref who couldn't speak English other than the words "NO" and "OK"?

Skelton is a tryer I will give him that. He really would fare better though if he ate properly and lost that spare tyre - although not the most talented guy in the world he would do a lot better at 230-235 and looking at his midsection it's very achievable.

Horrible job by Rawling - he had Chagaev by one point even with the point deduction so without that he had a draw. Terrible commentator in my opinion worse than Holdsworth.

leforge wrote:First of all I have to say well done to Matt, he did not disgrace himself did well, I thought the fight was closer than the scorecards suggested. I think Haye would beat Chageav if they fight. I dont think Ruslan much cop.

I don't even think Haye is gonna beat Enzo Maccrinnelli.

the commentator was not Bias !

Oh come on Rawling is always biased towards the Brits - I understand he's a fan but I think a commentator needs to be as neutral as possible, especially when scoring the fight. There is no way Skelton was even close to winning that fight.

As for Chagaev I think people need to bear in mind that he has had a lengthy layoff after contracting Hepatitis and wasn't at his best but he still got the job done against a very awkward opponent. Let's be honest I don't think there are many Heavyweights out there who could look good against Skelton, he makes for an ugly fight whoever he's fighting.

bigdave82 wrote:I thought the Setanta commentary leaned heavily towards Skelton. IMO the scorecards were fair, and I also had it 117-111.

Matt fought much better than most people thought he would but I think Chagaev looked very rusty after so long out.

Hats off to Skelton. A great effort against a good champion

Skelton was brave and busy and put in bags of effort but he never really got good quality work off. I scored it 115-112 myself but could see where the judges were coming from - Chagaev, as I said before the fight, allowed a lot of rounds to be close when he could have pulled away.

I say well done Skelton - he gave it everything. That old saying 'leave nothing in the ring' was true as he really tried to push himself to the limit, in the last round he almost punched himself to a standstill and had Chagaev not been pretty knackered himself Skelton looked ready to go.

I had it 116-111 or 8 rounds to 4 and then the point deduction.

I gave Skelton the first 3 rounds but then thought he tired as his work became less effective although I guess Chageav working him out to a degree had much to do with that as well.

I though it was entertaining in a low finesse kind of way although some of Chagaev's moves were quite slick, slipping Skelton's shots and making space to clump him back.

Skelton maybe very low on skill and openly admits it but many fighters could do with taking a look at the determination he brings....

nickd wrote:Horrible fight.

Why the hell did they have a ref who couldn't speak English other than the words "NO" and "OK"?

Skelton is a tryer I will give him that. He really would fare better though if he ate properly and lost that spare tyre - although not the most talented guy in the world he would do a lot better at 230-235 and looking at his midsection it's very achievable.

Horrible job by Rawling - he had Chagaev by one point even with the point deduction so without that he had a draw. Terrible commentator in my opinion worse than Holdsworth.

many close rounds. Woodhall had it by three. With a Brit crowd, judges would have scored differently imo. Seems to be a little bit of 'wise after the event' here. Maybe you should contact Matt directly to give him your considered input about dieting. Remember the training injury ..... I am sure he would love to here from somebody like you!!!
He actually did himself and his country proud. Also Chagaev fought like a man possessed in the last round, after being told by his corner it was close. They knew it could have been down to the last three minutes. Seems you were not watching properly.

Ultimately Chagaev just too well schooled for Skelton but very credible challenge.

Too bad for Skelton he didnt take that Maskaev shot a year ago-- think he mixes with Maskaev much better than a young crafty southpaw.

Stepping stone for David Haye now?

The Blade wrote:

nickd wrote:Horrible fight.

Why the hell did they have a ref who couldn't speak English other than the words "NO" and "OK"?

Skelton is a tryer I will give him that. He really would fare better though if he ate properly and lost that spare tyre - although not the most talented guy in the world he would do a lot better at 230-235 and looking at his midsection it's very achievable.

Horrible job by Rawling - he had Chagaev by one point even with the point deduction so without that he had a draw. Terrible commentator in my opinion worse than Holdsworth.

many close rounds. Woodhall had it by three. With a Brit crowd, judges would have scored differently imo. Seems to be a little bit of 'wise after the event' here. Maybe you should contact Matt directly to give him your considered input about dieting. Remember the training injury ..... I am sure he would love to here from somebody like you!!!
He actually did himself and his country proud. Also Chagaev fought like a man possessed in the last round, after being told by his corner it was close. They knew it could have been down to the last three minutes. Seems you were not watching properly.

It's not just Skelton, seems to me with no weight limit to make the majority of Heavyweights just don't put in enough effort on getting themselves in optimum shape. Even if you whip yourself into optimum condition in training your performance is still going to suffer a bit on fight night carrying 10-20lbs of excess weight/fat.

Fight with Dimitrenko fairly soon now I'd have thought. Sascha's turned down a fight with Krasniqi, but he needs to fight someone to win the belt

overhand_right wrote:Ultimately Chagaev just too well schooled for Skelton but very credible challenge.

Too bad for Skelton he didnt take that Maskaev shot a year ago-- think he mixes with Maskaev much better than a young crafty southpaw.

Stepping stone for David Haye now?

Skelton Haye makes a lot of sense. David has said win or lose he will wave goodbye to the cruisers after Enzo. Skelton would take his shots and make a fascinating test. Not beyond the bounds of possibility that Haye gets outlasted and outhustled even though he is a class better in terms of pure boxing ability. Also, it remains to be seen how he is after Enzo.

Agreed. Haye should settle domestic superiority before tackling the senior citizen yanks like Rahman and McCall, etc.

Haye shouldn't waste time against the domestic Heavies IMO. If he beats Enzo to become pretty much undisputed at Cruiser why would he not just compete in world class at Heavy?