By Mark Vester
Promoter Frank Warren is not happy with the performance of Matt Skelton (21-, 18KOs) last Saturday night at the O2 arena in England. Skleton won a majority decision over rival Michael Sprott to retain his Commonwealth title. Neither fighter performed well and the British crowd let their feelings known with loud boos and chants of "what a load of rubbish." Many were even walking out on the fight. The referee kept telling both fighters to actually fight, but the lack of action only continued.
Skelton blamed the bad performance on Sprott not willing to engage and only being concerned with surviving to the final bell. The winner was promised a big title bout bout by Warren, who told the UK Telegraph that Skelton's performance will make it very hard to match him in a big fight.
"After what happened I'm going to have a job getting either of those guys a world title chance," said Warren. "It wasn't a very convincing performance from either of them. The press weren't very happy and nor were the punters - and they're the ones who buy the tickets. I'll have a chat with them to see where we go from here.
"It certainly wasn't a pretty fight to watch. People buy tickets to be entertained, not to watch that. There's no consistency in the British heavyweight division and that makes it difficult to get people interested in them. One minute they're in a good fight and the next they're in a terrible one. They're difficult to sell."
