Matt Skelton

Matt Skelton
Data
Birth Name	Matt Skelton
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	British
birthday	January 23, 1967
place of birth	Bedford
style	Left delivery
size	1.91 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	37
Victories	28
Knockout victories	23
Defeats	9

Matt Skelton (born January 23, 1967 in Bedford , United Kingdom ) is a British heavyweight boxer.

Career

Skelton began his career as a professional boxer in 2002 at the age of 35. Before that, he professionally practiced the martial arts Muay Thai and K-1 . In 2004 he won the English heavyweight titles against Julius Francis and the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles against Michael Sprott . On February 25, 2006, Skelton boxed against Danny Williams . In this fight Skelton lost just on points and had to accept his first defeat. A rematch against Williams on July 8, 2006 Skelton was able to decide relatively clearly on points for themselves.

Promoter Frank Warren announced before the fight that negotiations would be underway for the winner to fight against WBA World Champion Nikolai Valujew . An offer to compete in a voluntary title defense against WBC title holder Oleg Maskayev , Skelton turned down.

In December 2006, Skelton was supposed to face Audley Harrison in London , but he had to cancel the fight almost 1.5 weeks before the fight date because he broke his hand in training. Instead, he boxed on January 19, 2008 in Düsseldorf against the Uzbek Ruslan Chagayev for the WBA World Championship, but lost well over twelve rounds on points.

On December 19, 2008 Skelton defeated the Italian Paolo Vidoz in Milan in the fight for the vacant European heavyweight championship prematurely, Vidoz gave up the fight after the ninth round. Surprisingly, Skelton then lost in February 2009 to the undefeated but not very well respected 37-year-old Northern Irishman Martin Rogan by technical knockout in the eleventh round. On September 19, 2009 he lost by giving up (TKO) against Francesco Pianeta because of a hand injury during the break for the 10th round.

Web links

• Matt Skelton in the BoxRec database