By Sean McDaniel: With the British Boxing Board of Control refusing to sanction unbeaten heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury’s fight against the faded 42-year-old Francois Botha (47-5-3, 28 KO’s) for February 19th, Fury is now looking at facing either 44-year-old Matt Skelton (25-6, 20 Ko’s) or 37-year-old former Mike Tyson conqueror Kevin McBride (35-8-1, 29 KO’s) next. It’s hard to imagine that the BBBofC would agree to sanction either of those fights, because they are just as bad as the Fury-Botha fight.
McBride may have beaten Tyson and sent him into retirement in 2005, but McBride has now lost four out of his last five fights and he’s far too heavy and faded to give much of a fight against Fury. This is essentially a wasted fight, one where Fury would be getting a name on his resume but he wouldn’t be getting anything out of the experience.
The same goes for a fight against 44-year-old Skelton. He may have been a halfway decent fighter five years ago, but he’s lost four out of his last seven fights in the past two years and he’s clearly not the same fighter he once was. Recently, Skelton has been fighting three round fights for some reason. This would be like a backwards step for Fury. I can’t seriously see what Fury can get from facing guys like McBride and Skelton. Fury would be better off going backwards and fighting John McDermott for a third time, because at least he can fight a little.
Fury was really disappointed by the BBBofC not approving of Botha. Fury sees him as a better opponent than a lot of the others that have been mentioned. I don’t agree. Botha looked horrible in his last fight a year against Evander Holyfield. It looks like Fury has set an incredibly low bar for himself.
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