(Rich Kane – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions) By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for the BADLY over-matched Welsh fighter Gavin Rees (37-1-1, 18 KO’s), sees Rees coming out of his fight this Saturday night against WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) smelling like a rose.
Hearn actually believes Rees is going to be invited back by HBO to be televised even if he loses to Broner. Hearn thinks Rees is going to give Broner so many problems that he’ll come out of the fight winning over HBO and many American boxing fans with his fighting style.
Hearn said to thaboxingvoice.com “Win lose or draw, HBO will love Gavin Rees because he’s a tough nut, and he’s hugely entertaining and comes to fight; every fight is a great fight.”
I think Hearn needs to put down the pipe and step slowly away. He’s not seeing things clearly. Rees doesn’t always look good when he fights. He looked god awful against Andy Murray and Anthony Mezaache, and those fights weren’t that long ago. If that’s what Hearn calls looking good, then I’m really sad for him because those weren’t good performances from Rees.
Let’s put it this way, If HBO televised the Rees-Mezaache and Rees-Murray fights, I’d be willing to bet they wouldn’t LOVE to televise any of Rees’ future fights because he looked worse than awful in those fights. I’ve seen some of Rees’ fights earlier in his career, and I admit he looked like a decent domestic level fighter, but not even close to being someone I’d go out of my way to see.
I mean, if he was on television and there was nothing but news on the other channels, then I’d watch him, but I wouldn’t plan my day around getting in front of the television to see Rees fight because he’s lacking in way too many areas of his game.
What I see happening on Saturday night is Rees getting clowned by Broner and beaten badly. No, HBO won’t be pleased by Rees’ performance, and HBO might not be happy that they agreed to televise the Broner-Rees mismatch in the first place when Golden Boy Promotions first floated that idea.
I know if I was on HBO’s executive staff, I would have pointed out to them loud and clear how much of a terrible fight the Broner-Rees fight is so that they could spare the American public of seeing this mismatch.
If HBO is going to televise Broner’s fights, they should insist on him fighting quality opposition like Miguel Vazquez, Richard Abril or Sharif Bogere or Miguel Acosta. Those are the class fighters of the lightweight division right now.
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