Martin Rogan, Matt Skelton Clash Again November 12

ByGary Totten

The stage is set for part two of a fight that first took place in 2009 between Martin Rogan and Matt Skelton, in Birmingham, England, as the pair are scheduled to renew hostilities on 12 November.

This time the venue is the King’s Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a marvellous boxing arena, which has seen so many great nights of boxing over the years.

Fighters including Barry McGuigan, Wayne McCullough, Chris Eubank, Amir Khan, Robin Reid and Paul McCloskey, to name but a few of the boxing legends to have fought under this famous venue’s roof.

On 28 February 2009, Rogan fought Skelton for the Commonwealth heavyweight title, in this fight of the year contender which could have gone either way.During the fight the momentum see-sawed from one man to the other but Rogan won the Commonwealth strap on this occasion.

The Belfast man went on to lose twice to Sam Sexton and reportedly turned down a fight with current British and Commonwealth champion Tyson Fury, although this was allegedly because Rogan had wanted to take on Panama’s Lewis Andreas Pineda on 27 October for the lightly regarded WBU version of the world title, but the British Boxing Board blocked the contest from taking place in Belfast.

It will be nearly a year since Rogan last fought, when he was active twice within two weeks, scoring a first round knockout against Yavour Marinchev of Bulgaria at the University Arena Limerick, Ireland on November 2010 and two weeks later winning a six round points decision against Germany’s Werner Kreiskott at the International Events Arena in Castlebar, Ireland.

Skelton’s last outing was also just under a year ago in October 2010, taking part in the highly successful Prizefighter series run by Matchroom Promotions’ Eddie Hearn’s team and shown live on Sky Sports in the UK.

Skelton reached the final of this heavyweight event edition after beating Ali Adams in the quarter-final and Kevin McBride in the semi-final, only to lose in the final against Michael Sprott.

I feel the Rogan vs.Skelton rematch will be a tough encounter for both boxers considering Rogan is 40 years old and Skelton is 44 years old.

Skelton is always in good shape for fights so a lot will depend on what shape Rogan is in come fight night. If he is in good condition, I see Rogan getting a home win in this one.