08.07.06 – By James Slater: Well, so much for the oxygen tent. In a quite disappointing fight, Matt Skelton got his revenge over Danny Williams as he won a unanimous points verdict tonight at Cardiff’s Millennium stadium. Danny, coming in at a career high 288 pounds, looked to be tired as early as the third round and was reduced to loading up on one big punch at a time in the hopes of getting rid of the much fitter Skelton. The scores, read out only minutes ago as I write this, gave the deserved win to the 39 year old by 117-112 twice and 115-114. In the end, the much better prepared man won the fight. The quick KO predicted by Williams never once looked like materialising, as Matt, incredibly, turned boxer and let his hands go in a continual fashion to frustrate his man.
The fight started out slowly, with both men appearing respectful of one another. It was Matt’s round though, as were the next two. It really was amazing to see the bear-like Skelton on his toes and dancing around the ring. These tactics worked for him a treat, however, as he scored points with punches thrown in sharp clusters.
Danny came out fast in the fifth round, sensing that he was behind, but Matt continued with his smart game-plan of sticking and moving. There was also lots of holding in this session, and it was clear that this fight was not going to be the rough and tumble affair the first one had been. There was some toe-to-toe slugging, to the delight of the audience, in the sixth round, however, but by now Danny was really starting to blow heavily.
It was apparent that his increased weight was nothing but a hindrance. After a brief spurt by Williams that was soon to fade, the pace was again slow in the seventh. In fact, Danny looked awful. So much so that before the start to this round his trainer, Jim McDonnell, told him that if this had been a six round fight, he would have lost on points. The writing was on the wall. Danny had all the work to do now.
The referee, perhaps being somewhat fussy, prevented the fight from shaping up as the previous encounter by the two behemoths had, by constantly asserting his authority. It was obvious that he, along with a lot of other people, thought the first bout was far too rough, with many infringements being committed by both men – especially Skelton. It’s fair to say that as a
consequence the crowd were not enjoying this fight quite as much. There was a low blow by Williams in round eight and a time-out was called. Despite this, Danny won the round – winning his first three minutes on my card (rounds four and six were very close though ). Matt’s hands were still fast in the ninth, while Williams looked to be pretty much spent. Skelton wasn’t fresh as a daisy himself though, by any means. But he had more in the tank than the man weighing over Twenty stone. Given instructions to get the needed KO win going into the final three rounds, Danny, to his credit, tried to do so. But he was running on empty and Matt, knowing he had the points win in the bag, kept out of harms way to box his way to the final bell.
At the end, there could only be one winner. Matt had won the lion’s share of the rounds, without doubt. Thankfully, there was no controversy and all three judges agreed. Skelton was the new Commonwealth heavyweight champion. And despite the good feeling I felt at the deserving, and vastly better trained man, getting the win, it was a poor fight to be sure – one that will hopefully not produce a rubber-match!
For Matt Skelton, bring on “The Beast From The East”!