Olympic bronze medal winner David Price knocked out Matt Skelton in the second round to retain his British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles on Friday night. The 45-year-old Skelton went down from a left to the body after taking a few solid rights in the opening rounds of the bout in Liverpool. He immediately confirmed fears that the bout at the Aintree Equestrian Centre would be a mismatch by making no effort to continue. The fight was over with four seconds of the second round remaking, pushing the unbeaten 29-year-old champion’s record to 13 knockouts in 15 fights.

Price is now expected to face Tony Thompson in February and then he wants Dereck Chisora or Tyson Fury in the summer.

Maloney said: "We're going to name a top American opponent within the next 24 hours. He'll be out February and then we'll be looking to do a nice fight with Dereck Chisora or Tyson Fury.

"We made Tyson Fury an offer last time that we had no response to. We're prepared to put £650,000 into an account on Monday morning, which is £150,000 more than we offered him last time.

"We want it, the British public want it and the world wants to see it. He won't earn that sort of money for fighting a Klitschko. You get half a million dollars and half of your TV rights."