Follow the Bear: Matt Skelton, the ultimate late bloomer

THERE comes a time in every fighterโ€™s career when he realises his best days are behind him. Usually it manifests physically, and more often than not, it leads to defeat. For Matt Skelton, though, it was a little different. It happened en route to one of the best wins of his career, and during a performance in which he looked as physically formidable as ever.

What Father Time had blunted in Skelton was not his reflexes, durability or strength, but rather his killer instinct.

โ€œI could see he was hurt,โ€ says Skelton of Paolo Vidoz, whom he stopped in a December 2008 European heavyweight title challenge. โ€œHe didnโ€™t want to be there. I was looking at him in his corner between rounds and he couldnโ€™t breathe properly. His head was slumping down. Iโ€™d broken him, but his pride made him carry on.โ€

Vidoz had been ground down by Skeltonโ€™s trademark unrelenting aggression and was in survival mode by the ninth round. Physically exhausted and mentally demoralised, the Italian appeared ready for the taking, but instead Skelton held back and implored referee Robin Dolpierre to intervene. He did not, but Vidozโ€™s corner pulled their man out before the 10th.

โ€œI was thinking about Chris Eubank and Michael Watson and imagining what it must feel like to know youโ€™ve done that [inflicted life-changing injuries] to another human being,โ€ says Skelton. โ€œSo, I started calling for the referee to stop the fight. The doctor thanked me after the fight for my compassion. Thatโ€™s when I thought to myself โ€˜you should get out of boxingโ€™. I shouldnโ€™t have been concerned for his wellbeing.โ€

He fought on, but Skelton identifies that as the tipping point of his career, when he crossed over to the wrong side of the hill, on the wrong side of 40. Heโ€™d scored one of his finest results and won a prestigious championship, but it was his last notable success. Skelton would lose his next three contests and then transition from world-ranked contender to gatekeeper.

If the final chapter of Skeltonโ€™s boxing career sounds familiar, its early acts were more unconventional.

Most boxing stories begin with the pro debut, or the amateur career. But for Skelton, there was no amateur career, and his pro debut didnโ€™t come until his story was more than half told. Because, while the โ€œBedford Bearโ€ is better known to many for his run through the heavyweight boxing ranks โ€“ and for running over many who inhabited them โ€“ this only came after a long and distinguished career in muay Thai and kickboxing. Those sports, plus a brief flirtation with MMA, combined for almost 60 bouts before Skelton even threw his first punch under Queensberry rules.

โ€œI was 33-0 as a Thai boxer and had won a couple of world titles,โ€ he says, โ€œbut I wasnโ€™t making massive money. Then [coach and manager] Nigel [Howlett] told me about K1 in Japan and said, โ€˜Weโ€™ve got to get you on that; you could actually make a living.โ€™

โ€œWe sent DVDs and a couple of months later they said they wanted me to fight Sam Greco. I looked at his record and thought โ€˜woah, this is a tough oneโ€™ [Greco had won a WKA muay Thai world title and numerous karate championships], but we went over there [to Yokohama in April 1998].

โ€œThree days before our fight, he pulled out with a back injury, so they offered me Jan โ€˜The Giantโ€™ Nortje. He was 6โ€™11โ€, so he lived up to his nickname! But I said yeah, Iโ€™ll fight him โ€“ Iโ€™m here now and I want to make some money.โ€

Skelton won on a third-round stoppage and impressed both the crowd and the K1 promoters.

โ€œThey offered me a contract for four to six fights a year. I grabbed it with both hands,โ€ he says.

Skelton was for the next three years a regular K1 fixture and a star in Japan. His record would not be as spotless as that which heโ€™d compiled in muay Thai, but he was fighting in elite class. He would beat big names such as Ray Sefo, Gary Turner and Nortje a second time, and suffer setbacks to the likes of Peter Aerts, Jerome LeBanner and Ernesto Hoost.

But while it came four years before Skelton switched to boxing, it was the first defeat of his kickboxing career that would lead to the change.

โ€œI ended up fighting Greco and I lost [on points in September 1998],โ€ he says. โ€œIt was the first time Iโ€™d ever lost and I was reflecting on why did I lose that fight.

โ€œIt was because there were no real heavyweights [in British kickboxing]. In my gym, the heaviest guy was 14st [Skelton would typically scale around the 18st mark]. There was no one with my strength; I was just walking them down.

โ€œI started going to boxing gyms for heavyweight sparring. I was going regularly to Kevin Sandersโ€™ gym in Peterborough, where I was sparring Derek McCafferty and I was thinking โ€˜how can he generate so much power from such a short distance?โ€™

โ€œItโ€™s because Thai boxing is fought at a distance, up on your toes. You donโ€™t plant your feet.

โ€œAfter every session, as I was driving home, I was thinking โ€˜why did that happen? Next time Iโ€™ll match himโ€™. I got better and better and it got to the stage I was dominating him.

โ€œThen Derek was supposed to go to Blackpool to spar Mathew Ellis, but he couldnโ€™t go, so they asked me and I said โ€˜of courseโ€™. At the time Iโ€™d had no [boxing] fights. Ellis was getting ready for a fight and he was going heavy on me, but I dominated him.

โ€œAfter two days his dad said they didnโ€™t want me to spar him anymore; he said, โ€˜Youโ€™ll break his spiritโ€™. They still paid me, though, and his dad said โ€˜I really think you should turn pro. How old are you?โ€™ I said 34. He said, โ€˜At least give it a try. You could win a Southern Area titleโ€™.โ€

Skelton would win a lot more than that. He switched to boxing, making a low-key but winning debut in September 2002 in the โ€˜awayโ€™ corner of a small hall show, and then surging to an English title within a year. This was followed by British and Commonwealth belts that he fiercely contested with the likes of Danny Williams and Michael Sprott, before that European apogee against Vidoz, via a โ€˜world titleโ€™ shot in 2008.

โ€œSometimes I feel sad about that fight,โ€ says Skelton of his spirited WBA title challenge to Ruslan Chagaev in Germany. โ€œBut then I tell myself โ€˜Matt, some of the greatest names in the sport have fought for that belt.โ€™ Itโ€™s just I could have given a better account of myselfโ€.

In truth, Skelton did much better than many had expected, pushing Chagaev to a decision that was mathematically clear but physically competitive.

โ€œI knew Iโ€™d have to stop this guy; I wouldnโ€™t get the decision,โ€ says Skelton, โ€œand I was thinking the referee had it in for me. He was threatening to disqualify me for pulling [Chagaev] in and leaning on him. But I was just using my strength and he was coming in low.

โ€œBut halfway through, Chagaev changed his style, wouldnโ€™t let me use my strength, and Iโ€™m thinking โ€˜this guy is a quality fighterโ€™. Then in round 11 he hit me in the solar plexus and I remember thinking โ€˜no, Iโ€™m not going downโ€ฆ am I?โ€™ [He didnโ€™t].

โ€œI just tried to have a war but yeah, he did enough to get the decision. Maybe I lacked a bit of self-belief; maybe I was overawed, thinking this guy was an Olympian, a world champion, undefeated.โ€

gettyimages 79130223 copy
Matt Skelton walks to the ring ahead of his 2008 fight against Ruslan Chagaev (MICHAEL GOTTSCHALK/DDP/AFP via Getty Images)

Itโ€™s strange to hear Skelton talk of being overawed. His own reputation was based on having no respect for the reputations of others โ€“ he always fought hard, he always fought his own fight and usually he got the win through sheer attrition. There was none of the vulnerability or unpredictability that characterised his big domestic rivals of the time โ€“ Williams, Sprott and Audley Harrison.

With the exception of Skelton v Harrison, those four heavyweights all won and lost against each other through the 2000s in what was one of the more entertaining eras of British heavyweight boxing.

That Skelton was in that mix is the perfect retort to those who question if he should have switched to boxing earlier.

โ€œIt was the perfect time,โ€ he says. โ€œIf Iโ€™d come along earlier, I might have had to face Mike Tyson! But there was Danny Williams, Sprott, Audley and several top guys all fighting, and I was part of that. The TV did huge numbers and the money was up there.โ€

Other recognisable victims on Skeltonโ€™s ledger include Michael Holden, Julius Francis, Bob Mirovic, Keith Long, Fabio Moli, Mark Krence and John McDermott, whom he beat in 79 seconds in 2005 โ€“ the fastest-ever finish in a British heavyweight title fight.

But while Skelton insists โ€œI donโ€™t live with regretsโ€, the 55-year-old canโ€™t help but wonder how he might have fit in to todayโ€™s heavyweight picture.

โ€œAJ [Anthony Joshua], Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, [Oleksandr] Usyk โ€“ what a great time for heavyweight boxing; the scene is fabulous,โ€ he says. โ€œI wish I was a part of it.โ€

The closest he got to it was a thumping at the hands of a young Joshua in 2014 in what was AJโ€™s seventh pro bout, and Skeltonโ€™s last. By then he was 47 and offered little more than a big name for Joshua to decorate his early rรฉsumรฉ with.

He gave it a solid try โ€“ didnโ€™t he always? โ€“ but it went exactly the way youโ€™d expect when matching a rising star with an ageing, inactive ex-champ. Skelton was stopped in two rounds.

โ€œThat was it for me,โ€ he says. โ€œI didnโ€™t want to do it anymore, didnโ€™t want to become a joke. I still had my faculties, my speech wasnโ€™t slurred. Of course, I still loved the sport and could have carried on, but I had to be realistic. Enoughโ€™s enough.โ€

Heโ€™d given more than enough โ€“ and he continues to do so. Since retiring, Skelton has set up a boxing gym and busied himself with charity work. The gym is a small, no-frills affair in Bedford called Ring & Road Fitness โ€“ a โ€œspit and sawdust gymโ€, as he calls it.

โ€œWe do some boxing technique, fitness, some white collar, a bit of MMA. Itโ€™s old school, itโ€™s not making loads of money, but itโ€™s a community thing, and thatโ€™s important.โ€

As is Skeltonโ€™s charity work for the Amicus Trust, which helps the homeless and those at risk of homelessness.

โ€œ[After boxing] I did NVQs in health and social care,โ€ he says. โ€œIโ€™d done a few talks in prisons, with gang members and young offenders. Then my sister, whoโ€™s a housing manager with Amicus, said come and work with us.

โ€œI thought that sounded like my kind of remit. I get to help the homeless, offenders, veterans, young people with drug-related issues; get them rehomed, help them move on and become independent, get them into society. I look after a nine-bedroom property housing ex-servicemen. It can be quite challenging, but itโ€™s rewarding.โ€

In other words, Skelton again found himself concerned for the wellbeing of others. But, unlike that night against Vidoz, when he realised such concern marked a turning point in his fighting life, it can only be a positive.

Vidoz was able to fight another day, thanks to Skeltonโ€™s compassion. Now, many others can say the same, too.

Share Page