By Erik Schmidt: Making his third defense of his European Boxing Union heavyweight title, undefeated Italian heavyweight Francesco Pianeta (19-0-1, 12 KO’s) stopped former Commonwealth champion Matt Skelton (22-4, 19 KO’s) in the 8th round on Saturday night at the Jahnsportforum, Neubradenburg, Mecklenburg, Vorpommeram, Germany.

The bout was stopped at the end of the 8th round by at the urging of Skelton’s corner after it was revealed that the 42-year-old Skelton had injured one of his hands during the fight and couldn’t continue. It’s just as good that the fight was stopped when it was, because Skelton looked exhausted and was tiring since the 5th round.

Skelton didn’t look to be in the best of shape, as he looked pretty chunky around the midsection. His conditioning seemed to show in his lack of energy and power. He fought like he was a big wet noodle, and rarely showed any fire and determination in the fight. It’s too bad, because this was a very winnable fight for Skelton had he come out on fire and took the fight to the 24-year-old Pianeta. The big 6’4” Italian has size, but his power is nonexistent during the fight.

Skelton fought reasonable well in the first two rounds of the fight, jabbing and throwing right hands to the head of Pianeta. However, rather than Skelton looking really good it was a case of Pianeta looking bad, missing punches and noting throwing enough.

He looked slightly intimated by Skelton in the early action. Although Skelton wasn’t throwing hard shots, he had Pianeta’s right eye already bruising up by the end of the 2nd round. The southpaw Pianeta outworked Skelton in the 3rd round, and landed a number of straight left hands and sweeping right hooks.

Skelton was starting to look tired at this point in the fight, breaking hard and lunging amateurishly at Pianeta when attempting to punch him. Skelton turned the tables on Pianeta at the end of the 3rd, walking him down and applying a lot of pressure.

However, Skelton missed with most of his shots and failed to catch Pianeta with any good scoring shots. Skelton started well in the 4th and 5th rounds, landing right hands to the head of Pianeta. However, Skelton tired out in both rounds and ended up being outworked in the 2nd half of the rounds by Pianeta.

Skelton lowered his head like a large goat and threw punches without looking at his target. He looked like a grade school student when he would do this kind of thing, and the shots never came close to connecting against Pianeta.

In the 6th, Skelton came out strong once again in the first minute of action, tagging Pianeta with left hand shots. But once again, Skelton slowed down in the second part of the round and ended up getting outworked by Pianeta.

Skelton looked totally spent in the 7th and 8th rounds, just taking shots, and looking all of his 42 years. Pianeta tagged Skelton at will in the 8th round, hitting him over and over again with straight left hands to the head. I couldn’t see Skelton taking another four rounds of this kind of punishment. After the 8th round ended, Skelton’s corner stopped the fight due to an injury that he suffered to one of his hands.

Regardless of Skelton’s injury, I’m thinking he should seriously consider retiring. He’s now lost three out of his last four bouts and I can’t see where he can still excel. He was beaten by Martin Rogan in an 11th round stoppage in February, so it seems pointless for Skelton to retreat to the domestic level because I can see Rogan beating him again.

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In other heavyweight action on the card, Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev (1-0, 1 KO’s) stopped Romanian Florian Banke (2-4) in the 2nd round. Pulev, 28, dropped Banke three times in the fight, once in the first and two times in the 2nd round, all with body shots. The fight was stopped at 2:05 of the 2nd round by referee Gerhard Sigl after Pulev dropped Banke with a left to the body.

Pulev, 6’4 ½” came out looking very confident in the first round, throwing short right hands to the head and stalking Banke around the ring. Pulev’s power shots had little effect on Banke until Pulev cornered him late in the round and nailed him with a right hand to the midsection that sent Banke down on the canvas in pain. Banke got up and was able to survive the remainder of the round.

In the 2nd round, Pulev attacked Banke hard at the start of the round, throwing powerful rights to the head. However, Banke wasn’t trouble in the least by the shots and fired back his own right hands. Pulev then went back to what had worked for him in the first round and tagged Banke with a nice left to the body that put Banke down for the second time in the fight.

Banke got up off the canvas and fought hard, trying to keep Pulev off him. However, Pulev cornered him once again and rained shots down on him until Banke folded after getting hit with another left to the body. The referee then immediately stopped the action.