TalkingBoxing's British Update
Skelton retains unspectacularly; Hunt–Meager enough to repeat; Moore–Jones rematch a cracker
by Dave Crellin
11/24 - Matt Skelton retained his British and Commonwealth titles with an eleventh-round stoppage over perennial tryer Keith Long at the York Hall on Friday. Long was outweighed by three stones and Skelton towered over the challenger, but the stocky Long succeeded in making this his type of fight – a tough, inside battle with all the work being done at close quarters.
Skelton had all the advantages of height and weight but neglected to use them as he gladly fell into the shoulder-to-shoulder style that suits Long so well. His work was being stifled and, whilst he won more rounds than his opponent, Skelton was letting Long get within range to score with some good shots and take some rounds on workrate and aggression.
The stoppage cam when Skelton stepped back and landed a lovely crisp right uppercut. Long when down almost immediately but rose quickly and steeled himself to continue – he had never been stopped before in his career. As Skelton stormed in referee Foster stepped in with Long protesting. He was behind and, on the cards, the knockdown had probably done for him but Long is a proud man and, in a championship fight, wanted to at least go the distance.
This was not pretty but Skelton marches on with his rough and ready style now having seen off the secondary tier of British heavyweights as well as a couple of international tier 3 names in Bob Mirovic and Ratko Draskovic. It’s hard to believe he could make it at any decent level given that he does at times look very raw indeed, but he has the tools and this is hardly a vintage heavyweight era. A match against the winner either Hoffman or Krasniqui for the Euro belt would be decent.
If the headliner was one to forget, chief support was a belter, with two young lightweight prospects being matched against each other. Danny Hunt and Lee Meager produced some lovely boxing in a contest which did more for both boys than another half-dozen contests against the usual journeyman fare. Hunt got the win narrowly on the referee’s card but this one could have gone either way. Both lads showed great skills and kept firing but in the end it was Hunt’s slightly higher workrate over Meager’s accuracy that nicked it for him. This one was for Hunt’s English title. Plenty in the audience had Meager winning and it would be great for domestic fight followers if these two could get together again.
There was also a win for Ross Minter (son of Alan) and the obligatory early blowout for Kevin Mitchell.
Over in Hartlepool, Llanelli’s Dean Philips lost in a Commonwealth title challenge at lightweight to local man Kevin Bennett. After a watchful opening, Bennett started with a pattern of working sharply with his own shots and getting on top of Phillips’ work. The few shots that the Welshman did land were dismissed by the champion, who rubbished murmurs that he would have trouble handling Phillips’ workrate by establishing an impressive tempo himself that he maintained throughout the contest. The scorecards were wide, and justifiably so. Phillips still has plenty to go for, but it is Bennett who showed real potential to move onwards and upwards.
The big card this weekend is in Altrincham in Cheshire where Jamie Moore jumps back into the lion’s den following his surprise loss to Ossie Duran for the Commonwealth light-middle title. Moore fights for the British title at the weight against former victim Michael Jones. Moore remains the only man to have beaten the scouser, when contesting this and the Commonwealth belts 18 months ago.
But, last time, Jones claimed he was underprepared whereas this time Moore is the short-order opponent, coming in on less than a week’s notice. It should be an interesting tussle between two quality light-middles: Jones is all height and long punches whereas Moore looks to close the distance and does his best work up close. Although most rematches tend to mirror the initial result, Jones sounds to have prepared well (Paul Samuels was the original opponent) and this may well see him reverse the scores from the previous bout.
Former IBO super-middle champ Brian Magee gets back on the trail on the undercard, as does tasty light-middleweight Richard Williams.
Scott Dann has a defence of his British middleweight title scheduled for Saturday night in Plymouth against an opponent yet to be confirmed.
Dave Crellin gives TalkingBoxing.com readers the weekly scoop and his expert opionion on the British and European scene. Dave is a Oxford boxing blue and a former international boxing coach and is one of TalkingBoxing's top-notch writers. Make sure to check out his "British Update" weekly for all the boxing information you need on foreign events!
