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Audley Harrison To Fight Matt Skelton for The British Heavyweight Boxing Title (October 9th)

British Boxing fans will be glad to hear that Audley Harrison will be taking on Ex K1 Muay Thai And Kickboxing Heavyweight Champion and now reigning British Heaveyweight Boxing Champion Matt Skelton (Matt, Mat, short for Matthew?)

Fight Date to be announced at a boxing press conference on Aug 6(CANCELLED) but the fight will NOT take place and I hear it will be October 9 and will be on the undercard of another UK Boxer, Joe Calzaghe.(super middleweight title defense)
Boxing Betting Prices/Odds will be available after the proper fight date announcement.

Audley Harrison (33) who stands at 6'5, weighs in around 245lb or 19 stone and with a reach of 83cm is a formidable opponent for any heavyweight boxer.

Audley Harrison has obvious ability but has certainly taken his time coming through from amateur boxing. It is about time Audley took on a decent boxer and will not be able to toy with this guy. Finally we will get to see Audley come out of his shell and show some aggression. If he does'nt he could well get beat on points for sheer lack of workrate. (Speaking of lack of workrate ~ Audley Denies The Fight Will Take Place

Matt Skelton (38) stands at 6'3 and was very dangerous with his feet back in his kickboxing days. I never got to see him use his hands all that much but do recall he wants for nothing in the aggression department and will make the fight a very interesting heavyweight boxing fight.

There will most certainly be boxing betting and prices/odds available. I will post the prices and odds as they come in. I envisage Audley being favourite at around odds of 1-2. Any betting odds better than that and the bookies might just get caught out by the games Audley has been playing by not bothering to be very aggressive in his previous fights.

Audley has been playing the old game of "not let them see" ~ I see Audley Harrison as dangerous and very mobile for one so large. Add that to his fastish hands and he will make for quite a fearful opponent if he actually opens up. If Audley can up his work rate he may actually make it to Heavyweight World Title Holder status (especially if Evander Holyfield is the opponent). Skelton does not have that much quality boxing wise, probably holds his chin too high like most martial artists who box on the level, and at 38 is just making up the numbers in his bank account ~ also so I can have a look at the betting and put some prices/odds up.
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Harrison v Skelton fight update (august 4)

Audley Harrison Press Release.

London, ENGLAND (August 4, 2004) "There will be no fight between me and Matt Skelton," stated Olympic heavyweight gold medallist and WBF Heavyweight Champion Audley Harrison (16-0, 11KOs) today after learning that British promoter Frank Warren had issued a press release declaring the fight was done and announced a press conference for Thursday to discuss particulars.

"I am not going to any press conference nor is a fight between myself and Matt Skelton a done deal," said Harrison. "Unfortunately Mr. Warren's overzealous and premature announcement that the fight is happening is irresponsible on his part as his statement is false and in fact, no contracts have been signed."

Harrison, who is self-managed and represented by his own promotional company, A-Force Promotions, has been deep in negotiations with Warren, working overtime to make this fight happen for October 9. "At this stage of my career, I want nothing more than to fight Matt Skelton," said Harrison. "I and my team have been doing our part to move things along and I felt quite confident that a deal for the fight was close to being made."

Harrison continued. "Unfortunately Frank's latest actions have now hamper the spirit of the negotiations, and it seems totally inappropriate at this stage of our talks that he would release such a statement when in fact there is no paper worked signed to back it up."

Harrison, who has a tentative deal in the United States for a fight on November 13, is disappointed by Warren's actions and will proceed with alternative career opportunities if a deal cannot be finalized soon. "Frank knows how to play the game, has a wonderful gift for the gab and his words are very convincing," said Harrison. "Unfortunately none of this is good enough for me and unless there are signed contracts, which will give me 100% confidence that we have a fair and agreed upon deal, there is no fight to announce."

Harrison finished. "Frank is all smoke and mirrors and once again trying to fool the boxing public in to believing that he is responsible for making this fight happen. In reality, Frank is responsible for it almost not happening by continuing to ignore the fact that A-Force is a co-promoter of this event and we will be treated with respect and professionalism if he wants to get the deal done."

Promoter Frank Warren has today issued the following statement:

"As members of the media are aware I called a press conference for today (5 August) to announce that the fight had been made between British and Commonwealth Heavyweight Matt Skelton and Audley Harrison."

"This was on an agreed understanding between Harrison's company A-Force Promotions and Sports Network that should Harrison and I not finalise terms that the press conference would be cancelled."

"I was flying back from abroad yesterday afternoon and I suggested to Harrison we meet this morning to finalise details because he was unavailable last night due a film premier he had to attend."

"Had we finalised agreed terms, I wanted the press conference to take place today as next week is the start of the football season and obviously the media would be football mad."

"Throughout my years involved in boxing, and I have negotiated with everybody including Don King, Bob Arum and significant boxers, I must say the most difficult I have encountered have been with Harrison,"

"I had agreed terms with A-Force Promotions and my lawyers drew up a Memorandum of Understanding leaving a few issues to be resolved."

"One of the issues was that Harrison insisted on having three judges assigned to the fight instead of a referee."

"I spoke with the Simon Block, the General Secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, who wasn't happy about this. He couldn't understand why this request was being made."

"I had no objections to the judges, Skelton said we won't need judges and that he would bring his own two judges to the fight " his fists."

"If Harrison is to taken seriously in the heavyweight division, then he should take a leaf out of Danny Williams? book who went into the lion?s den to beat Mike Tyson. Harrison has fallen behind Williams and Skelton who are the leaders of the British heavyweight ranks."

"If he is serious about being a respected fighter then he should prove to the British public what he is made of which until now has been all hot air and wind."

"What is revealing to me is that Harrison was not serious about fighting Skelton is that he stated in his press release he has provisional date of November 13 in America for a fight. If he is so keen on taking on Skelton and he said on Monday that he would "take care of Matt Skelton" then why was he arranging another fight whilst we were negotiating?"

"I will leave that up to the media and public to decide that one."