BoxRec

It's pretty much a gimme that this is going to happen now, so who wins?

Their first fight was not a pugilistic delight. Skelton doing what he does best, Sprott clammed up and let Skelton swarm him.

Can he reverse things? To his advantage - Skelton, now 40, will have been out of the ring for nigh on a year by the time the two meet. His stamina and fitness has always been commendable, but can he keep it going? Sprott, with the luxery of time to prepare, looked very good for the Harrison fight, and should, despite Skelton's professional approach to keeping fit, have the upper hand.

His tactics may need to change though. Against Audrey, he soaked up the pressure before jumping on Harrison for the startled rabbit effect. Skelton though, is tougher than Audrey and, unless Sprott can produce another one of those picture postcard punches that did for Harrison, I'm sure Skelton will be staying the duration, which means Sprott will have to win the rounds, which means he will have to force the pace and not get intimidated - a pretty tough ask of Sketon can come back with his usual agressive approach.

On the wider scheme of things - the world title shot

BBC reports:

Warren confirmed Sprott will now fight Commonwealth champion Matt Skelton in a world title eliminator in London on 26 May.

I don't see how this can be a world title eliminator - even if it's an 'A' and not 'final' eliminator. Skelton is 10-15 with most of the boards, Sprott (pretty harshly) is unranked by all, probably due to his unpretty record than ability. Only possibility is Warren has an agreement that the winner of this will fight Ibragimov - if he is to be awarded an interim title due to Briggs' pull-out.

scrub that - Ibragimov-Brock for the WBO interim title in March apparently

SN have been talking about eliminators since they went to ITV - I dont read too much into any of that .

As for Sprott/ Skelton - No thanks.

The first fight was terrible, and Sprott let himself down, eventually capitulating very quickly in the 12th round - It was a very poor fight.

The only winner here is SN who again get lucky with an easy Heavyweight match to make.

When they interviewed Skelton after the fight on Saturday, he looked gutted, probably missed out on the biggest payday for him against Harrison, and now he has to face Sprott again.

I have to say I was pretty pumped when Sprott won. I like Michael, decent, hard working pro, who has done things the hard way most of his career.

I said before the fight that Sprott's chances were being vastly underestimated, was going to have a bet on a KO win for Sprott, but didn't have enough money on my debit card so missed out on a nice fat pay day. :(

Seems like there was a fundamental difference between Sprott and Audley. Sprott can fight, Audley can't.

Looking at how a fit, fast, hungry heavy performed vs a big lumbering one makes me wonder how Haye will fit in the equation. In terms of handspeed & talent Haye is way ahead of the UK heavyweights.

I'd like to see Haye vs Sprott. Sprott's quite a small big man.

Hurray :x ..you really wish some half-decent schooled british HW would emerge and wipe the floor with these derelicts...I like Sprott but Jesus, main events on ITV?

I know, it's a bit of a dire state of affairs isn't it? There seems to be absolutely nothing around at heavyweight and no signs of anyone coming through.

I wonder if Price might make a decent heavyweight, he's pretty quick for a big man, but there's questions over his punch resistance and we all know that you don't take a lot of punishment at amateur by comparison.

We need to try and encourage some Russians to come over here and then pick up British passports...
Cant see Sprott beating Skelton unless Matts slipped quite a bit... scary thing is that if Williams can pull himself together a bit he could get back in the mix, ....he must feel gutted after Saturday, that should have been him koing Audely....

I think Danny probably doesn't give a shite now. He's obviously got little or no interest in boxing any more.

I hope he doesnt take a pasting from Gammer, against Audely he looked like he'd lost the ability to defend himself...

I think he is going to get hammered, literally. Well, not literally as such, as i don't think Scott will actually bring a hammer into the ring, but as his name or nickname is 'the hammer'...oh forget it.

Thats what I worry about, I've got a soft spot for Williams and it'd be sad to see him beaten up by Gammer who seems fairly useful though untested... Gammer is probably sick that he didnt take the audely fight, he should be.... why didnt he take it?.... a win over Williams wont mean much now....