By Scott Gilfoid: Sky Sports analyst Jim Watt believes Gavin Rees (37-1-1, 18 KO’s) is capable of giving WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) problems on Saturday night in their HBO televised fight from Atlantic City, New Jersey. Watt thinks Rees is good at dealing with bigger fighters, and giving them problems with his heavy pressure. Rees and Broner are both the same size in this fight at 5’7”.
Watt said to Sky Sports “He [Rees] has a style that would give smooth boxers problems, as smooth boxers like to do things at their own pace. Fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr. don’t like pressure. Rees can at least give Broner a real test and create some problems.”
Somehow, I can’t really picture in my mind Rees giving Mayweather problems with heavy pressure. I mean, if you ask me that question on a Saturday night after I’ve had some scotch, maybe I might think differently. But from a logical point of view, I think Rees would be a punching bag for Mayweather if he tried to pressure him and it wouldn’t be pretty.
I don’t think pressure is going to work for Rees against Broner, I really don’t, and I wonder if Watt has actually seen Broner fight because if he had he’d noticed years ago that Broner has fought tons of pressure fighters, and done very well against them. In fact, a lot of the fighters that Broner has faced have been little stocky pressure fighters in the Gavin Rees mold. Broner seems to like to fight them be waits for them to come forward and then clocks them with straight right hands or left hooks on the jaw to stop them in their tracks.
Watt doesn’t think Rees beat Broner, saying “I can’t really make a case for Rees winning this fight because I do think Broner is a special talent.”
Well, of course Rees isn’t going to win this fight. It’s pretty much academic that this is little more than a tune-up bout for Broner to get ready for a fight against Scottish fighter Ricky Burns later on in the year if Burns will agree to fight him.
It’s also a fight to get the UK boxing public interested in seeing Broner fight because once he annihilates Rees, they’ll likely be interested in seeing what Burns can do with him in terms of trying to get revenge.
I don’t think Burns will take that fight because we’ve already see Burns pass on a fight with Broner twice previously, but there’s always a chance. Golden Boy Promotions is counting on Burns agreeing to face Broner, which is why they matched Broner with Rees in the first place. If there wasn’t the chance of a fight between Broner and Burns, then Golden Boy likely wouldn’t have wasted Broner’s time by putting him in with Rees.
There are a lot more lightweights in the division that would create more interest in the U.S than a fight against Rees. This is all about trying to heighten interest in a Broner-Burns fight. I don’t think it’s going to work in terms of creating interest in the United States among boxing fans because fans don’t have clue one who Ricky Burns is, but it will help create interest with the UK fans.
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