Gavin Rees Vs Anthony Crolla - Post-Fight Report

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The Fans Have Voted: Rees Vs Crolla

Crolla starting to gain support in final few days!

Like most Rees opponents, Crolla has a clear size advantage. 

When this fight was announced people were excited, but it was still seen as a one-sided fight in most people's eyes, with former world champion Rees being levels above domestic contender Anthony Crolla. However, over the past few days Crolla has started to emerge as the favorite with some fans and experts, with a lot of people thinking that Rees may underestimate him.

James McKnight's Monthly Review - February

JamesMcKnight reviews the biggest boxing events to take place in February 2013.

You can follow James McKnight on Twitter: @JamesMcknight83.

"A-FORCE" SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT!  

On the night of February 23, at York Hall in Bethnal Green, the 29th edition of prizefighter served up a treat, with Audley Harrison topping the night off by creating prizefighter history! 

In the lead up to the International Heavyweights III prizefighter tournament, Harrison was in an extremely confident and positive frame of mind. The 41-year-old has the gift of the gab of course, and, as always, was in full flow! He had every right to be confident of his chances to win the trophy though, because he won prizefighter back in 2009 and he looked in fantastic shape as he weighed in at under 17 stones. But, coming in to the tournament, Harrison had been on the receiving end of a vicious knockout to David Price. which ended in just 1 round only 4 months earlier. Many interpreted Harrison's confidence as fear, but many interpreted it as assurance, that he would put the defeat to Price to the back of his mind and would win the trophy for a second time. Of course, there was only one way to find out, and that was to see Harrison back in the ring backing his words up!  

Gavin Rees could return to the US in the early summer!

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97.

British lightweight Gavin Rees gained a lot of new fans in America on Saturday night, despite being stopped in five rounds by unbeaten superstar and WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner. The 32-year old showed true courage and gave his best effort but just simply wasn't good enough to compete with the man in front him. But this event as a whole has seen him go from an unknown Brit to a popular contender in the US. His promoter Eddie Hearn claims that we could see 'The Rock' return to the States for a fight later this year.

"Gavin's performance won him many admirers in America. He is a true warrior and we have already been approached about further fights for Gavin in the US in early summer," Hearn told BoxingScene.com

"His stock however has also been raised significantly in the UK and there are still some big domestic opportunities available to him here. All in all the future is very bright for Gavin and the plan is to pick up another world title shot before the end of 2013."

Predictably Unpredictable

By David Johnson @MrDaj. 

Predictably unpredictable....

Can Rees provide the next big upset in the world of boxing?

I’m not going to sit here spouting stats and predictions; I’m just going to get something off my chest... I love boxing..!!

My no.1 sport from childhood is Football (Soccer for my US friends), it won’t change. But one thing I’ve never been able to hide is an undying love and appreciation for the noble art of Boxing.

My memory stretches back to the Naz, Tyson, Benn / Eubank era and the rise and domination of Lennox Lewis... (There are hundreds of other fighters / fights not mentioned I know – in addition to some UK bias).

Being 12 years of age and staying up until 5am to watch Tyson demolish someone, or indeed an ear simply has to be experienced.

Maccarinelli picks Rees to stop Broner!

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97.

Maccarinelli & Rees back in 2007.

Former cruiserweight world champion Enzo Maccarinelli has backed fellow Welshman Gavin Rees to get the victory over highly-rated two-weight world champion Adrien Broner this Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall.

Rees can become a two-weight world champ himself this weekend if he beats Broner as the WBC lightweight world title is on the line. However, the chances of this happening are very slim. The 32-year old is a massive underdog and has never shared the ring with someone of Broner's talent before. Despite this, Maccarinelli believes Rees can solve 'The Problem' and even stop him in the late stages of the fight.

"I see Gavin stopping him in the later rounds," Enzo told World Boxing News. "Broner is underestimating Gavin's conditioning, both physically and mentally."

"Gavin is the most mentally tough guy I've ever met and I am certain he will cement himself as a true world beater come Saturday night."

'The Rock' is no joke when it comes to boxing achievements and experience. But it is the young man that stands in front of him that make the odds so heavily stacked against him. The 25-0 loud-mouthed youngster has tons of talent to back his charisma and this is usually extremely intimidating to the opponents he beats up and out-classes. But, like Maccarinelli said, there isn't much that can phase Rees. He may not win the fight, he may not even last the distance, but he will give absolutely 100% for as long as the fight lasts. This match-up may be a little more exciting than some people think.

Adrien Broner Vs Gavin Rees - Fight Preview

By James McKnight @Jamesmcknight83.

Gavin Rees will face Adrien Broner in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on February 16 for the WBC lightweight title.  

Rees, 37(18)-1-1, last fought in July when he took on Derry Mathews in a rematch from 2011 which had ended in a draw. He beat Mathews after the fight was stopped during the 9th round. With that win. the Welshman not only regained the European title but he also claimed the British title too. Rees, 32, is aiming to win a World title at a second weight after he claimed the WBA World light-welterweight title back in July 2007. On that night he beat Frenchman, Souleymane M'baye on points. In his first defense of the title against Ukranian, Andriy Kotelnik in February 2012, he was stopped in the 12th round despite putting up a valiant effort throughout the fight, Rees simply had absorbed too much punishment. 

Broner, 25(21)-0-0, is currently 23 years of age and he is one of boxing's finest upcoming prospects. When he faces Rees. he will be aiming to defend the WBC lightweight title. In November, he made his lightweight debut after stepping up from super-featherweight. In the opposite corner to him that night was Mexico's, Antonio DeMarco who was aiming to defend the WBC title. Before the fight, many people had their own interpretation of how they believed the fight would unfold and many people expected DeMarco to give Broner problems of his own to deal with. But, this proved to not be the case. Broner was in excellent form, and landed many big shots throughout the contest, in particular some lethal uppercuts. The fight was eventually stopped during the 8th round. 

Ricky Burns talks about facing Miguel Vasquez!

@iFILMLONDON

WBO lightweight world champion Ricky Burns discusses his upcoming unification bout with the IBF's Miguel Vasquez on March 16th. He also discusses the situation with Adrien Broner and his plans for the future. 

Warren Vs Hearn continues...

The forever ongoing and growing rivalry between Britain's 'Top 2' boxing promoters continued this week when Eddie Hearn reacted to some things that Frank Warren said in a previous interview. And now Warren has fired back to what Hearn said in an interview this week. This is what Warren said in his article for boxingscene.com:

Eddie,

It’s the ‘Dinosaur’ Old School Promoter here. 

Just seen your recent interview with IFilm London.  Once again you felt compelled to reference me, several of my fighters and BoxNation.  You stalking me? 

What’s with this ‘New Age Promoting’? I’m not quite sure what is meant by this term, but I do know what Promoting is, delivering great fights for the fans and putting bums on seats.   

Recently FWP have given the fans proper quality showdowns including Groves v DeGale, Mitchell v Murray, Cleverly v Bellew, Burns v Katsidis, Helenius v Chisora,  Klitschko v Chisora, Burns v Mitchell and of course, Haye v Chisora – all virtual sell outs.  How does that compare with your shows over the same period? 

I think even in your hearts of hearts, however ‘New Age’ you may be and even with your BIG Sky budget, you would have to admit that other than Froch v Bute, you have not delivered anywhere near as many big live audiences or fights of that calibre over the same period and I’ve not included the small hall classics such as Walsh v Appleby amongst others. 

I’d like to know what was so awful with my “Horrendous offer” for Gavin Rees to face Ricky Burns for his WBO World Title the ExCel in December? 

The offer we made to Gavin for the fight was £50,000 with three options, which had been improved with a final offer of £60,000.  You said Gavin will be earning more for his next European title defence – I’m sure he will be pleased to hear that he will be getting more than £60,000 for his next European title fight.   

He was promised a shot by you at the WBA title, but despite being number 2 in their rankings it didn’t happen and he is now missing out on a huge opportunity to fight Ricky Burns.  My offer is clearly anything but a ‘Horrendous offer’, something your Director of Boxing, an honest man, with years of experience, said was a “Great offer”.   

Gavin previously won the WBA World Title with me and you have turned down a chance for him to become a 2-Weight World Champion and again, you have deprived the fans of a good old domestic battle.  

Let’s also touch on the ‘options and allsorts’ section of your statement. Everybody knows in boxing that other than a mandatory defence, it is normal that options are given to the promoter of the Champion, just like the options you signed when Froch, the mandatory challenger, fought Bute.  I would like to ask you this question – have you taken any options on Yusef Mack for his IBF World Title challenge against Carl Froch next month?  And indeed, have you taken options out on any previous fighters?  I think we both know the answer to that. 

The fact remains that you preach that it’s the fighters’ interests at heart that you have,  and that may be, but I suspect this pattern of rejecting big purse offers and big opportunities has more to do with you worrying that you will have no fighters left to run with on Sky.  Perhaps the ‘exclusive’ dates you have secured are more of a hindrance to fill than you expected? 

An offer for Brook to face Timothy Bradley, again for a career best purse.  Why so many eliminators Eddie? He was WBO number one two years ago? Is ‘New Age’ promoting about turning down World Title fights for your boxers in favour of servicing a TV deal?  

As for Carl Froch, my offer was genuine and as I have said on record many times, I fancy Nathan to beat him.  The fact remains that it was another huge fight and a big payday for Carl that you rejected and not as you are suggesting now for a fight to take place before the Bute fight but after.  £1million – I know he hasn’t made that money in any fight with you and again what of the fans?  I am sure they would much rather see Cleverly v Froch rather than Froch v Mack and Nathan fighting Uzelkov. 

You’ve now rejected three big World Title fights for three of your fighters (Brook, Froch and now Rees). This rejection pattern you’re developing, in my opinion, is not good for the sport. TV deals are important but not as important as delivering for your fighters and for the fans that want to see the big events. You seem to talk so often about doing things for the fans but from where I am sitting, you stopped them from seeing three big fights. Is that the New-Age agenda?  

New Age?  Us old guys, especially the Hall of Fame Promoters like to keep it simple – make the big fights and put bums on seats. 

Regards, 

‘Dinosaur’

Crolla looking to become Prizefighter champ!

Former British lightweight champion Anthony Crolla has signed up for Matchroom's Prizefighter tournament on October 6th - completing what is probably the most impressive line-up in the tournament's history. 

Crolla no doubt will be well and truly 100% hyped up for this tournament. Not only does he get to put his name back out there and get people talking about him again, he also gets the chance to avenge his most recent defeat against 'Dirty' Derry Matthews. That's right... Derry Matthews is also in this tournament. Forgetting everyone else.. Even just with these two its probably already one of the most high-profile line-ups in the tournaments short history. 

Matthews picked up the British lightweight title when he defeated Crolla back in April. But he lost it in his first defence just a few months later against Gavin Rees. The Liverpudlian will have the hometown advantage as the event will take place at the Liverpool Olympia. However, Crolla has already been announced as the hot favourite to walk away with the winner's prize of £32,000. But you must remember... This is Prizefighter. The tournament of upsets. 

Matchroom Promoter Eddie Hearn also believes that the eight men selected for the tournament are the strongest group of boxers he has ever put together. 

"Prizefighter is back with a bang with our strongest line-up ever," said Hearn. "I never expected a dream line-up like this and Anthony's inclusion is the icing on the cake." 

"Ideally we would have loved to have this in a 5,000-seater arena but the fans will experience an atmosphere like never before in the Liverpool Olympia... This is a must-see night of boxing." 

The full line-up for the October 6th tournament is as followed: Anthony Crolla, Derry Matthews, Gary Sykes, Stephen Jennings, Terry Needham, Nathan Brough, Kieran Farrell and Liam Patrick Walsh. 

In addition to the Prizefighter action, highly-rated super-middleweight prospect Rocky Fielding will challenge Wayne Reed for the Central area title.

Hearn looking to make Abril Vs Rees & Golovkin Vs Proksa!

Matchroom's forever-improving promoter Eddie Hearn.

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed that if things go well, we could get to see two really interesting fights later this year... The first being Gavin Rees Vs Richard Abril for the vacant WBA lightweight title.

Personally, I think this an amazing fight and if it does happen, a lot of people will be watching. Rees has been calling for a world title shot for a very long time and many people believe he deserves after his knock-out victory over domestic rival Derry Matthews on July 7th. Abril, technically is not coming off of a victory but almost everyone believes he should be.The Cuban world title contender put on a career-best performance against Brandon Rios on March 17th only to be clearly robbed. However, now he has a chance to get revenge and win the world title that he believes should rightfully be his.

"Abril is someone that we are talking to and we are looking to make that happen, but nothing will be announced this week," told Hearn.

The next brilliant fight that we could get to see is Grzrgorz Proksa Vs Gennady Golovkin. Personally, I don't think this fight is as good as Rees Vs Abril but it is still a very good fight. Proksa is coming off of a great performance in which he won back his European middleweight title. And I probably don't even need to stress to you how much of a good fighter Golovkin is. He is regarded by many as the most underrated fighter in the world and is no doubt a future world champion. Looking at it this early on, it seems like it will be a fairly one-sided fight in Golovkin's favour but if Proksa wants to prove that he is one of the best in the world he is going to have to take fights like this.

"Proksa was due to be fighting Barker on September 8th, but we're now in deep negotiations with Golovkin's camp to take that fight next month after we were approached by them," Hearn confirmed.

Brook taken to a place he has never been before!

Undefeated British welterweight Kell Brook fought last night (June 7th) and extended his perfect record to 28-0. However, it wasn't as easy as some people expected it to be. Jones put up a hell of a fight and made it the toughest test of Brook's entire career.

Brook started well and easily won the first four or five rounds but then things started to change. The tactics that were ineffective for Jones at the start of the fight, were starting to work and bring the American back into the fight. In the first few rounds, it was Brook's physical strength and superior boxing skills that were keeping Jones at bay, but the spite that Brook desperately wanted to prove he had, may have just worked against him in the middle rounds. 'The Special One' started to get involved in a war and this style of fight suited Jones.

The hard-punching American continued to move forward and at one point, Brook looked a little dazed and wobbly. It was revealed that after the 8th round that Brook was suffering from a broken nose. It was clear that this was effecting Brook has he was breathing heavily and not throwing his punches with the same aggression that he was at the beginning. 

Brook managed to last the final few rounds and even stood toe-to-toe with Jones in the last minute or so of the fight. The judges scorecards at the end were 114-114, 116-113, 115-113. The last two were fair, but I still don't know how the first judge managed to score the fight a draw. Jones had a few good rounds, but Brook was in control for the majority of the fight.

'The Special One' proved a lot of things in this fight, but also left a lot of questions. We are still wondering if he is ready to step up in class and fight world beaters, but he did prove to all of his doubters that he has a tremendous amount of heart and almost a pretty strong chin.

On the under-card of the fantastic show set up by Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn, there were no surprises. Gavin Rees scored a 9th round KO over Derry Matthews in their highly anticipated rematch for the European lightweight title. And in the other great rematch, Proksa won back his European middleweight title by knocking out Kerry Hope in the 8th round.

Rees Vs Matthews II & Proksa Vs Hope II added to July 7th show!

Rees Vs Matthews I.

Two highly anticipated rematches have been added to the July 7th show at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, that will be headlined by Kell Brook.

The first rematch announced was Gavin Rees Vs Derry Matthews. The two men met last October and battled it out for Rees' European lightweight title. It was expected to be a cracking fight and the first few rounds were very interesting. However, the bout was cut short after Matthews broke his nose in the fourth round after a clash of heads.

Both fighters last outings were very successful. Rees put on a fantastic performance in Paris and retained his title by stopping Anthony Meezache in the 7th round. But, if that was a good performance from the Welshman, then the Liverpudlian Derry Matthews' was even better! He upset the odds and became the new British lightweight champion after he pulled off a fantastic 6th round stoppage win over bookie's favourite Anthony Crolla.

The fight has all the makings of a potential fight of the year and the show promoter Eddie Hearn feels the same: "The Rees Vs Matthews fight in Wales was warming up nicely when Derry got injured, and I'm glad they're getting the chance to get it on again. Gavin was fantastic in France when he beat Meezache and Derry's performance against Crolla was very impressive and he certainly deserves a second crack at the title."

Kerry Hope upset the odds.

The second rematch is a fight between Greg Proksa and Kerry Hope. Now, I'm sure that anybody who saw the first fight between these two will be desperate to see it again. Their first fight came on the 17th March this year and was easily the best fight of the night, even thought Kell Brook and Matthew Hatton were topping the bill. Proksa was the huge favourite and nobody even thought Hope stood a chance. But, the Welshman upset the odds and battled his way to a majority decision win. Some people might be wondering why Hope took the rematch instead of moving on to the bigger guys in the division but he believes he needs to prove that the first win wasn't a fluke.

Eddie Hearn is also very happy to be staging this bout on July 7th: "Kerry Hope's win over Greg Proksa was a real shock to everyone - apart from Kerry and his team. They were convinced he had the goods to beat Greg and so it proved, he was terrific and it was gruelling and gripping contest. Greg will have revenge on his mind while Kerry won't want to let the title out of his hands, so I expect this rematch to top the ferocious intensity of the first fight."

Unbeaten welterweight Kell Brook will headline the show against an opponent that will be announced on SkySports' show Ringside on May 10th.

Glasgow delivers a great night of boxing!

It was set to be a good night of boxing but the fans were the people who made the show exciting and great! They showed so much support for the local fighters and it paid off as Stephen Simmons, Paul Appleby, Callum Johnson and Ricky Burns all won.

The main event staged a great performance by Burns who dominated Paulus Moses for most fight. Although Moses showed a few energized and exciting spurts it was nowhere near enough to trouble the flawless performance from the 'Rickster' Ricky Burns.

However it was the under-card fights that made the show in our opinion. Stephen Simmons became the first person to stop Hastings Rasani in 10 fights and Callun Johnson pulled off an amazing stoppage after just 96 seconds against journeyman Tommy Tolan, but it was Paul Appleby Vs Stephen Ormond that got the crowd off their feet and made it a night to remember! Ormond looked to be clearly ahead after the first few rounds but then the warrior Paul Appleby brought it back with true grit and determination. This wasn't the first time that Appleby has given us a fight to remember. You all must remember his fight last year against Liam Walsh that won fight of the year.

The show was great but really it is now the future for Ricky Burns that most people care about... It's been announced that there could be a summer showdown between Burns and Mitchell which has been talked about by the fans for a very long time. Kevin Mitchell isn't the only option that Burns has got that would produce a sell-out crowd, Gavin Rees and Anthony Crolla have also showed that are looking to fight Burns. Ricky hasn't really had much media exposure during his successful career but this fight will surely gain him a few more fans.

So for now we can all look back on a great night of boxing for Scotland and especially Ricky Burns!

Adrien Broner talks Gavin Rees, Ricky Burns & Floyd Mayweather

@IFILMLONDON

Gavin Rees talks Adrien Broner

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Adrien Broner vs Gavin Rees - Head-To-Head

@IFILMLONDON

Adrien Broner and Gavin Rees go head-to-head at the final press conference before they meet in the ring on February 16th for their WBC lightweight title fight.

Adrien Broner Vs Gavin Rees - Press Conference Footage

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Eddie Hearn talks Gavin Rees Vs Adrien Broner

@IFILMLONDON

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn discusses the fight between Gavin Rees and Adrien broner on February 16th. He believes that his fighter is less of an underdog than most people think.

Adrien Broner Vs Gavin Rees - Post-Fight Press Conference

boxingchannel.tv

Adrien Broner talks about his 5th round stoppage victory over Gavin Rees last night at the post-fight press conference.