Chagaev Too Much For Skelton

By Boxing News - 01/21/2008 - Comments

chagaev3455533.jpgIn a fight that was marred by excessive wrestling on the inside, undefeated World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (24-0-1, 17 KOs) won a hard-fought unanimous decision over 40 year-old Matt Skelton (21-2, 18 KOs) on Saturday night at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Dusseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. In the opening round, Skelton found a way to negate Chagaev’s superior offensive attack, namely by grabbing him and trying to maul him on the inside. It worked perfectly, at least for awhile, as Skelton expertly used fine inside fighting tactics, such as holding and hitting, leaning on his opponent and rabbit punches, all to perfection.

The inside fighting also had the effect of wearing down Chagaev, who was making his first defense of his title which he won last year in April 2007, with a controversial majority decision over then champion Nikolay Valuev. Chagaev looked poor on that night, hardly seeming to win any rounds against the 7-foot giant, and didn’t look a whole better against Skelton. The problem for Skelton, however, is that he looked even worse than Chagaev, for he quickly ran out of gas after round three of the fight, and was like a large slug for the remaining rounds.

It was purely ugly boxing from that point on, as Skelton continued to grab and wrestle Chagaev at every opportunity, forcing the fight into a kind of grappling contest. To his credit, Chagaev proved to be the better inside fighter but he was far from impressive in doing so. I had Skelton winning the first three rounds of the fight, largely due to his short uppercuts on the inside. After the 3rd round, however, Chagaev took over, landing short combinations on the inside. The punches were hardly powerful, but Chagaev isn’t used to fighting on the inside, having come from a former Soviet boxing system, which relies almost exclusively outside fighting techniques.

Mostly, Chagaev seemed to be winning the rounds based on his youth alone, as he seemed to be easy pickings for any good heavyweight that can fight well on the inside. Skelton, though, tried to make a fight of it, but he was just far too tired – and overweight – to mount much of an offense against Chagaev. He did, however, take Chagaev’s short punches well, but that’s not saying much, as Chagaev isn’t much of a puncher, especially on the inside where he had little room to get extension on his shot. In rounds six through twelve, Skelton badly faded, and spent most of the time draped all over Chagaev.

It was hard work for both fighters, as they continuously grappled back and forth, but not particularly entertaining to watch. I hope Chagaev takes on a real challenger for his next defense, someone like Alexander Dimitrenko or perhaps a rematch with Nikolay Valuev, because this was fight was painful to watch.