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Boxing

British duo to battle for world title shot

09/01/2006

Danny Williams and Matt Skelton will fight for the right to have a shot at a world title, according to promoter Frank Warren.

Britain's top two heavyweights are scheduled to face each other at London's ExCel Arena on February 25th with Williams' Commonwealth belt on the line.

But the real incentive for the victor will be the promise of a world title fight, most likely against the new WBA champion Nicolai Valuev.

"I believe in the summer we can make a world-title fight for the winner and I would like to do the fight here in Britain," Warren said today.

Valuev, the 7ft 2in 23-stone Beast from the East, recently defeated American John Ruiz to become the biggest heavyweight champion of all time but Warren is confident that both Williams and Skelton do have the boxing skills to defeat the giant Russian.

However, Warren also believes that the British pair could, on their day, beat any of the other champions, those being WBC champ Hasim Rahman, IBF king Chris Byrd and WBO title-holder Lamon Brewster.

"There's nothing out there that either of these two guys couldn't cope with," Warren added.

Williams, 32, has already had one title shot but bravely lost to then-WBC champ Vitali Klitschko in December 2004.

However none of the current belt holders possess anything like the skill or power of Klitschko and therefore either Williams or Skelton, 38, could realistically stand a chance of becoming the first British heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis bowed out of the sport in February 2004.

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