Matt Skelton's opponent confirmed...

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 09 Nov 2003, 11:52

The English heavyweight champion takes on Rumania's Patriche Costel on the Johnny Nelson bill-Alexander Petkovic WBO cruiserweight title bill in Germany next Saturday night.
The 32-year-old Costel has a 5-4 (1) record, but has lost three of his four fights this year. It is scheduled for eight rounds. Skelton has yet to go the distance as an unbeaten pro and Sky-TV will screen his fight first on Saturday, then the Nelson defence.

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 09 Nov 2003, 12:09

English heavyweight champion Matt Skelton faces Dutch-based Rumanian Patriche Costel in an eight-rounder on the Nelson-Petkovic world title bill next Saturday in Germany. The busy Skelton sent out a message to Audley Harrison in his last fight three weeks ago: a third-round stoppage of Yugoslavia's Ratko Draskovic in Edinburgh, a man who had taken Audley the full eight rounds in his previous fight and in fact had never been stopped before. It was a 10th straight win for the 34-year-old Bedford puncher in his 14-month career - all of them inside the distance, including a one-sided trouncing of the experienced Mike Holden for the English title in September.
So Costel will be up against it. The 32-year-old has a record of 5-4 (1) record, but has lost three of his four fights this year, including a fifth round stoppage at the hands of former WBO heavyweight title challenger Willi Fischer in Germany and a second round stoppage at the hands of "The Dutch Sonny Liston" Richel Hersisia in Holland for the vacant Dutch heavyweight title. The opposition hasn't been bad.
But Skelton seems to be improving with every fight, and the way he beat the normally durable Holden and Draskovic was impressive: he walked through them. Big and powerful, he has to be favoured to do something similar to Costel.

REAL_DEAL · Post by **REAL_DEAL** » 09 Nov 2003, 12:16

i was expecting a klitschko

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 09 Nov 2003, 14:37

Very impressed that he's keeping busy, but this is definately too big a step backwards from his last opponent.

What is he going to learn from this?? It sounds like a 1 round exercise and a bit of cash.

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 09 Nov 2003, 16:27

stujones wrote:Very impressed that he's keeping busy, but this is definately too big a step backwards from his last opponent.

What is he going to learn from this?? It sounds like a 1 round exercise and a bit of cash.

Sky-TV actually want one-round knockouts, Stu. To them it looks great.
Look at the disappointment they displayed the other night when Matt Macklin lost his unbeaten record in a good, hard, learning 10-rounder with Andrew Facey. Was that a bad performance? Of course not. Macklin lost a close fight on points and learned more in that one fight than all his previous fights put together. But I wonder when we're going to see him on Sky again.

Goz · Post by **Goz** » 10 Nov 2003, 06:39

bennie wrote: Sky-TV actually want one-round knockouts, Stu. To them it looks great.
Look at the disappointment they displayed the other night when Matt Macklin lost his unbeaten record in a good, hard, learning 10-rounder with Andrew Facey. Was that a bad performance? Of course not. Macklin lost a close fight on points and learned more in that one fight than all his previous fights put together. But I wonder when we're going to see him on Sky again.

Too true, The Macklin fight was far better than a one round blowout of Johnny Polishperson.

The annoying thing is that surely Sky are the ones who are in a position to change peoples perception of what is good and what is not. At the end of the day 90% of UK sports fans will believe what they are told and not use their own mind, so as you say when Sky are really negative about Macklin's 10 round points loss the general public change channels after the fight thinking it was a letdown.

If Sky do their best to push the positive aspects of the Macklin fight then Joe public will be less inclined to write Macklin off. That said when Macklin puts together another 10 straight wins and Sky showcase him again in 18 months the general public won't remember him anyway.

The likes of Piper and Mcuigan should know better though...

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 10 Nov 2003, 16:39

Had a word with our resident European expert, Dutch Windmill, about Skelton's opponent on Saturday night in Germany, Patriche Costel of Rumania. Dutch has seen him fight, and was at ringside for his fight with Richel Hersisia earlier this year in Holland. It ended in two rounds in favour of Hersisia.
Dutch says: "Costel is a former strongman and he is like a three-time national amateur champion (of Rumania). Hersisia knocked him down three times, all times with body shots (Costel was somewhat out of shape)
"He quit against one of my favourites Willy Fisher (he got cut too), and I did not see the fight where he got knocked out in one round by Cyril Seror.
"All in all a very safe fight and since the guy is there for the money, Skelton should get rid of him early. Costel seems very vulnerable."

Cheers Dutch.

get in the ring · Post by **get in the ring** » 10 Nov 2003, 16:44

I've been really impressed with how Skelton has kept busy, give his 35 + age, but does anyone else feel that his competition could be a little better?

It's great that he's active, but in former British heavyweight champ Michael Holden, Skleton stopped a very good domestic fighter a while back. Since then he has been very busy, but is not fighting guys on par with Holden, or better still fighters who are superior to Holden. He's fighting inferior guys, who are just there to be beaten.

It's only a slight dig at Skelton. As I say I love the way he's staying active. I just feel he should be basing his efforts around that good Holden win, and going on from there. Francis, Sprott, one of the better German/Eastern Euro Heavy's, those are the kind's of fighters I'd like to see Matt in with.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 10 Nov 2003, 16:48

get in the ring wrote:I've been really impressed with how Skelton has kept busy, give his 35 + age, but does anyone else feel that his competition could be a little better?

It's great that he's active, but in former British heavyweight champ Michael Holden, Skleton stopped a very good domestic fighter a while back. Since then he has been very busy, but is not fighting guys on par with Holden, or better still fighters who are superior to Holden. He's fighting inferior guys, who are just there to be beaten.

It's only a slight dig at Skelton. As I say I love the way he's staying active. I just feel he should be basing his efforts around that good Holden win, and going on from there. Francis, Sprott, one of the better German/Eastern Euro Heavy's, those are the kind's of fighters I'd like to see Matt in with.

Yes I agree, but you can't have it both ways I'm afraid. Staying busy means fighting every 4 weeks or so. Whose going to fight Skelton on 4 weeks notice??

I think come January he needs to get a little less busy and get some learning fights in him. This guy's too big a downward step.

leedswolf · Post by **leedswolf** » 10 Nov 2003, 17:03

Well u can't blame the Skelton camp for taking this fight.

I will also bet he fights again on either the Calzaghe or Hatton undercard.

I was impressed with his comments on the audio section of allegedly's website the other day.

I liked the way he didn't bad mouth any of the other Big British names.

He was saying he could beat them all, but he did it with respect and dare I say it, a touch of class!

Twinkle Toes · Post by **Twinkle Toes** » 10 Nov 2003, 17:32

I like skelton, very busy, and padding that record up nicely (i dont mean that nastily)

I can't see that this fight will teach him a lot, but travelling to another country will be good experience for him.

Costa · Post by **Costa** » 10 Nov 2003, 19:28

Its a good thing Skelton's first name isn't Audley otherwise he'd be getting stick for such an opponent as this.