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A month ago, it was Audley Harrison. Today, Matt Skelton fell to top British heavyweight prospect David Price, downed in just two rounds on a body attack.
Price (15-0, 13 KO) found himself on the back foot a bit, as 45-year-old Skelton (28-7, 23 KO) came out hard and looked to make it a rough fight, trying to take away Price's power a bit by staying in his chest. The veteran had a little success in the first round, and ate a good, clean right hand from Price, too, taking it pretty well. After Price found some openings to throw combinations later in the round, Skelton came out charging again in the second.
All in all, it was a good plan of attack from Skelton, whose best hope was to make things uncomfortable for Price. He did his best there, and he had moments where he did seem to have Price just the slightest bit off his game. In the end, though, Price's power proved too much. Skelton took a couple more decent shots to the head, but it was the old-fashioned body work that wound up doing him in, as Price hurt him down there and finished him off in pretty short order.
"It was a bit scrappy at times, but that's what you get when you fight Matt Skelton," Price said after the bout.
Price said before the fight that he hopes to face Dereck Chisora next, and that's an interesting matchup. Chisora is a fearless sort who found his way inside on Vitali Klitschko earlier this year. Of course, Tyson Fury also came up in the post-fight interview.
"I'm interested in all the heavyweights in the world, not just Tyson Fury," he said, with promoter Frank Maloney saying they'll be officially announcing Price's next fight within 24 hours, which is expected to be former world title challenger Tony Thompson.
Undercard Results
Denton Vassell retained the Commonwealth welterweight title with a TKO-6 win against Ronnie Heffron. The stoppage came after a pair of nasty uppercuts, leading to referee Mark Green pulling the plug a bit early on the fight. Well, I thought it was early, anyway -- Heffron didn't appear to be in huge trouble, though he was certainly rocked and got buckled on the second blow, and they were truly big shots. But Green was the one right there, so he probably knows better than I do. Crowd wasn't big on the stoppage. Vassell improves to 20-10 (10 KO), while Heffron falls to 11-1 (5 KO).