It's sometimes strange how boxing works.

Matt Skelton played his part in a stinker last time out against Michael Sprott in July and seemed to have boxed his way out of contention for a world title shot. Yet here he is with a tilt at glory.

Ruslan Chagaev has been ill or injured (or both) and clearly views Skelton as an easy touch. Skelton is ranked at 15 by the WBA, the lowest a champion can dig to find a voluntary challenger under the rules.

On all known form the gulf in class here is much wider than the sea which separated Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather last month. Pedigree is just as important and again Skelton is a distant second best on that score.

Chagaev was twice world champion as an amateur, registering two wins against Cuba's Felix Savon, form as good as it gets.

And last April, in winning the WBA title against the "Beast from the East" Nikolai Valuev, Chagaev harked back to those unpaid days with 12 rounds of hit-and-move tactics and ran out a comfy winner.

He darted in and out of range and landed at will with a pinpoint straight left, a shot which is also likely to trouble square-on Skelton.

Chagaev was craftily elusive that night and to repeat a phrase in American gyms down the years, Valuev would have struggled to hit him with a 'handful of rice'.

Chagaev can operate just as effectively on the front foot whereas Skelton quite often falls into the pattern set by an opponent, even when he is winning.

He tells us he turns 40 next week (various record books care to differ) but age is not the issue it seems because he less "shockworn" than some fighters 10 years younger having come to professional boxing so late in life.

Here in Dusseldorf he avoided barbs and confrontations at the weigh-in by stepping off the scales and heading back to his hotel virtually in the same movement.

You can get odds of 6-1 against a fairytale with some bookies. For me, he is set to be remembered alongside the likes of Cockell and Farr rather than Bruno and Lewis.

Game - but in too deep.