10.01.05 – Touted heavyweight prospect Roman Greenberg has turned down the opportunity of facing the main man in the domestic division – British and Commonwealth king MATT SKELTON. A more than substantial offer was made to Greenberg’s promoter Robert Waterman for the fight to take place in February in what would have been a thrilling clash between two unbeaten fighters. Sadly, Greenberg’s has declined the fight for the following reasons:
1. UNDER AGE: Greenberg claims that at 22 he is too young to face Skelton. Mike Tyson was World Heavyweight Champion at 21. Maybe Waterman is waiting for Greenberg to develop and mature until he is 37 – the age Skelton is claimed to be – then Skelton will then have to come out of retirement!
2. INEXPERIENCE: Currently 17-0, Greenberg has had two more fights than Skelton but is claiming that the Skelton fight is too early in his career despite having extensive international amateur experience and has been a professional ten months longer. In comparison, Skelton has had no amateur boxing experience yet he won the British and Commonwealth titles in only his thirteenth fight. Since then he has defeated three former British champions whilst Greenberg is still padding out his record.
3. MONEY – Greenberg has never been paid the purse that he was offered to fight Skelton by facing the road-sweepers that he has been doing.
Showing similarities to Audley ‘AWOL’ Harrison – who also turned down a fight with Skelton – and Herbie Hide, Greenberg was last seen heading to America for two non-descript fights which are sure to benefit his career like Harrison’s.
In an interview Waterman, they claim that they are not looking for short cuts, the one thing we can be certain of is that they are not looking to find out if there man can really fight or if he is willing to enter into a real fight.
Skelton will not be waiting around for Greenberg; instead he will keep busy and feature as main-event at the Wembley Conference Centre in a 12-round International Heavyweight Contest on February 25 as he continues his march towards a World Heavyweight title challenge.
The Bedford beast is the ONLY British heavyweight with a television deal in place. It appears that his rivals would rather fight in America in obscurity on the undercard with no TV coverage instead of prime-time on British television.
Skelton is bitterly disappointed that another fighter has refused to fight him. He stormed, “Does this mean that I have sent every British heavyweight into hiding or to the USA?”