Gavin Rees proves he is a true lightweight and full round up of Saturday’s action
It was a boxing banquet on Saturday with a whole host of bouts for fight fans to feast on.
Domestically Gavin Rees clinched the British lightweight strap with an 11th-round stoppage over John Watson. It looked like it was going to be a short night’s work initially as Rees controlled the fight from the beginning. However Watson came back into it in the later rounds.
Rees is by far the more experienced fighter and he showed that with a strong unanswered opening half of the fight. In comparison Watson is a fighter who is trying to take his career up a notch, but to begin with he struggled to deal with Rees succinct jab, despite his significant seven-inch height advantage.
Former light-welter world champion Rees was in cruise control until midway through the fight when Watson found his range and even caused Rees a bloody nose in the seventh. This must have set the alarms bells ringing in the local boy’s head as he now had to scrap his way back into a much more even contest. Eventually he managed to throw out a superb right straight that dropped Watson in the 10th. The Scouser just about got back to his feet but his legs had gone and Rees pursued him around the ring before unleashing his trusty right once again, causing referee Dave Parris to call time.
Without doubt Rees looked much more comfortable at lightweight and this was a proper tear-up, a rematch should be on the cards and it would certainly be one worth watching.
Stateside the big fight of the weekend was Juan Manuel Lopez v Rafael Marquez where “Juanma” proved once again that he is a genuine pound-for-pound contender.
The Puerto Rican retained his WBO featherweight title and kept his unbeaten record by comfortably coming through a tough opponent in Marquez. Lopez started the fight like a man on fire and his only moment of real trouble came when Marquez wobbled him in the fourth with a big right hand followed by a tough combo.
After that it was all Lopez, the older Marquez never quite got going in the same vain he did in those classic Israel Vasquez match-ups and instead struggled to deal with the rampaging Lopez. Any questions about the Puerto Rican’s chin were answered as he took all the Mexican could throw at him and the fight was over when Marquez was forced to retire in the eighth from a shoulder injury he sustained early on.
Finally on the Lopez-Marquez undercard the two substitutes in the Super Six tournament, Allan Green and Glen Johnson, battled it out for a place in the semi-finals.
It was the veteran Jamaican Johnson who prevailed. “Road Warrior” stunned his younger challenger with a vicious left-right combo that sent “Ghost Dog” tumbling towards the canvas. The 41-year old Johnson who came in for Kessler now goes straight through to the semi-finals while Green must be ruing his decision to enter the competition. He has lost his unbeaten record and proved in his two fights that he is not able to compete at this level.
There is a strong chance Ghost Dog may now vanish.
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