Rees Wants Shot At Hatton: “I Believe I’d Beat Him”

By Boxing News - 12/27/2007 - Comments

In the latest boxing news, World Boxing Association junior welterweight champion Gavin Rees (27-0, 13 KOs) wants to take on fellow Brit Ricky Hatton, who recently was destroyed by Floyd Mayweather Jr in a humiliating 10th round TKO at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rees, 27, is an almost mirror image of Hatton, fighting in the same high pressure manner, along with the same tendency for fouling his opponents. Rees, who is trained by Joe Calzaghe’ father, Enzo, had this to say to the Sun online internet site:

“I’d love to get it on with Ricky. It would hand Ricky a shot at a title, it’s a fight the British public will love, it’ll be England v Wales and two warriors going toe-to-toe — it ticks all the boxes. The WBA belt is a very prestigious world title so why wouldn’t Ricky fancy going for it? I want the big fights and it would be a right tear-up. I’m a quality boxer who would love to give Ricky a right going over — and I believe I’d beat him.”

Rees recently won the WBA junior welterweight title in a shocking 12-round unanimous decision upset of the hard-hitting champion Souleymane M’baye in July at the International Arena, in Cardiff, Wales. Rees applied steady pressure all fight long to M’baye, who for his part, rarely threw a punch in defense of himself. However, it’s hard to give Rees much credit in victory because of M’baye’s lack of fighting back, as he almost seemed ill or perhaps injured the way he was unable to let his hands go. Before meeting up with M’baye, Rees had fought almost exclusively C-level fighters, most of which had losing records.

This, more than anything, was what made Rees victory seem so remarkable, as not many people had expected a short, pudgy-looking fighter like Rees to ever win a championship due to his ordinary skills. He’s not especially fast or powerful, instead relying on his smothering, wrestling style of fighting to out-hustle his foes. Certainly it would be a great return match for Hatton, as he could get an easy victory while at the same time, giving his British fans a fight that they would like to see. As for action, it probably wouldn’t be interesting to watch due to the tendency for both Hatton and Rees to wrestle and foul.

Quite frankly, however, the fight will likely never happen, because Rees is scheduled to fight Ukrainian challenger Andreas Kotelnik on January 19th, in Germany. It’s a bout that Rees isn’t likely to win, as Kotelnik is considered one of the top fighters in the junior welterweight division and will most likely easily defeat Rees, thus wiping out a potential Rees-Hatton matchup. However, Rees is exactly the type of fighter that Hatton needs to face, because Ricky is badly in need of a confidence boost right about now after being destroyed by Mayweather.

At least in beating Rees, Hatton could show that he’s still a major player in the junior welterweight division. Short of that, Hatton will have to face fighters like Junior Witter, Paulie Malignaggi or Ricardo Torres, all of whom would have a good chance of defeating him almost as easily as Mayweather did.



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