Welterweight Bradley Skeete delivered a punch perfect performance to win the British and Commonwealth titles on Saturday night. The banger form Bromley brought the belts home by outpointing Sam Eggington at the Genting Arena in the latter’s hometown, Birmingham.
South Londoner Skeete was in complete control throughout the 12 rounds and silenced the Genting Arena crowd there to support ‘The Savage’ from Stoubridge. It was a fantastic performance from Skeete who will now look to move on to bigger and better things as one of Britain’s most improved boxers.
Scores of 117-112, 116-113 and 115-113 saw Skeete pick up the titles at the second attempt. Skeete set the tone in the very first round, utilising his jab to great effect and impressively out-boxing Eggington. The new champion stuck to his trainer Al Smith’s game plan and looked in complete control at times.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the fight Skeete said: “It means the world to me to get these belts. I thought I did enough to win against Gavin but that experience took me through this fight. Sam had a great crowd, I had a great crowd and it was a great, great fight.”
He added: “I had Sam on my mind for 10 weeks. I knew how tough he is. People said it’s the boxer against the brawler but I knew Sam could box and I showed I can fight as well. Respect to Sam. I got to the seventh, dropped my hands and just started enjoying it. I knew form then it was my fight. It felt like I took it out of him but I had in my head not to switch off.”
An emotional Skeete dedicated his win to late manager and mentor Dean Powell.
He said: “This is dedicated to Dean Powell and I can’t wait to go to his bench in Greenwich and plonk my belts on there.”
