By Nate Anderson: In a fight that reminded me a lot of the second fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran, in which Duran suddenly called it quits in the 8th round on November 1980, Italian heavyweight Paolo Vidoz (25-6, 14 KOs) quit at on his stool following the 9th round, thus giving Matt Skelton (22-2, 19 KOs) the win and along with it the vacant EBU (European) heavyweight title on Saturday night at PalaLido, in Milan, Lombardia, Italy. Vidoz, 387, had been fighting reasonably well going into the 9th round.
However, at the start of the round he suddenly looked both tired and defeated, dropping both his hands, shaking his head from time to time as if he had lost complete confidence in himself and didn’t want to fight any longer.
A couple of times in the round, he turned his back on Skelton and walked away from him. Perhaps given that the fight took place in his native Italy, the fight wasn’t stopped by the referee when he did this. In most other countries, if a fighter had turned their back on an opponent and walked away, chances are good that the referee would have stopped the bout. Not in this case.
With Vidoz, who 2000 won Super Heavyweight bronze at the Sydney Olympics, barely defending himself, Skelton spent the entire round skipping around, looking gleeful and hitting Vidoz with hard combinations and jabs to the head. Not once in the round did Vidoz throw a punch, as he just looked like he wanted no part of fighting any longer.
Granted, he was well behind at the time in the fight and needed a knockout to win. In fact, I had him losing all of the previous eight rounds, but usually a fighter gives it their all to try and score a knockout when they’re as far behind as Vidoz, especially when it’s in their home country. Vidoz, however, for whatever reason, he felt that he didn’t have it on Saturday night and ended up giving up after the round.
Skelton, 41, making his first appearance since losing a landslide 12-round decision to Ruslan Chagaev 11 months ago in January, looked good in the first round, throwing a lot of jabs and a couple of right hands. Vidoz hardly did anything in the round and was limited to a few harmless jabs.
Even then, he seemed to not be in the fight. Skelton got a little braver in the 2nd round, throwing a handful of combinations, but still mostly throwing jabs and looking cautious of Vidoz’s right hand. In the 3rd and 4th rounds, Skelton continued dominating Vidoz, rushing forward and pounding him with combinations.
Vidoz was hurt at the start of the 4th round by a hard right hand from Skelton, and looked in bad shape for the next few moments as Skelton repeatedly nailed him with right hands and uppercuts while Vidoz tried to clinch and hold on. For much of the remainder of the round, Vidoz went to the ropes and fought off them, playing a poor game of rope and dope and taking a lot of punishment. Vidoz looked as if he wanted to quit in this round, his body language already looking like a defeated fighter wanting out.
The crowd tried to encourage Vidoz in the 5th round, screaming loudly every time he would land a jab or a right hand. He only landed a few shots in the round, yet the crowd cheered as if he had Skelton in trouble rather than him just landing a shot for a change. In the 6th round, easily the best round by far for Vidoz in the fight, he fought hard in the round and succeeded in landing some good right hands and left hooks.
When he was letting his hands go, he didn’t look bad, and having no trouble in getting through the porous guard of Skelton. Unfortunately for Vidoz, he wasn’t able to punch for very long without getting tired and stopping. In the 7th round, Vidoz continued to land hard shots from time to time, but still getting the worst of it like in the previous round.
Skelton began measuring him for shots near the end of the round as Vidoz once again retreated to the ropes and covered up. Both fighters looked sloppy and poor in the 8th round, throwing wild shots, moving like they both were exhausted and putting little power into their punches.
Skelton, again, appeared to do a little bit more and enough to win the round. In the 9th, Vidoz looked completely finished as he started the round, shaking his head, looking into the audience at someone, and lowering both of his hands to his sides, as if to say, ‘I’ve had it.’ Skelton then took complete advantage of the situation, battering Vidoz around the ring with weak shots.
Skelton’s not much of a puncher, despite having high percentage of knockouts, so he wasn’t able to hurt Vidoz, even when the Italian’s hands were at his sides. Finally, after taking punishment and not fighting back for the entire round, Vidoz quit in between rounds, shaking his head as his corner tried to encourage him to keep on fighting.