Gavin Rees vows to defend his EBU lightweight title against Derry Mathews – Boxing News
Gavin Rees, the current EBU (European) lightweight champion, will defend his title for the third consecutive time against Derry Mathews, the current BBBC British lightweight champion, in a 12-round bout which will be held on July 7, 2012.
Derry will also put his newly acquired British title on the line for the very first time and the duo will brawl on the fight card headlined by the IBF international welterweight championship bout between Kell Brook and Carson Jones.
The event will be co-headlined by the epic EBU (European) middleweight championship clash between Kerry Hope and Grzegorz Proksa and the ring for the bout will be setup at Motorpoint Arena situated in Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
The event is being promoted by Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing who recently held a press conference which was attended by almost all the main-event pugilists. Derry and Gavin also shared their thoughts during the media interaction and vowed to defend their
respective titles.
Gavin, 32, has been in a total 38 bouts and emerged victorious in 36. The British proud has nailed 17 of his opponents by knockout and proudly resides at World Boxing Organisation’s 10th rank.
Also known as ‘The Rock’, Rees has collected just one loss from Andriy Kotelnyk who knocked him out in the 12th round and gifted Rees his very first and only career loss.
Since then Gavin is on a 10-bout win streak and grabbed his EBU (European) lightweight title by nailing Andy Murray via unanimous decision. During the media interaction, Gavin admitted Derry’s potential and put forth the significance of the bout.
Rees stated, “The fight is probably much bigger after we’ve both had good wins in our last fights. For me, this is probably my last domestic and European hurdle before getting back to World title level and for Derry he wants to prove he can step up – so
the stakes are high for us both.”
His Saturday night opponent, Derry, 28, is a surging Briton who has a resume of 37 bouts. The Liverpool proud has nailed 30 opponents and 16 of them via knockout. As compared to Gavin, Matthews possesses a tarnished win and knockout ratio.
Derry, also known as ‘Dirty’, while sharing his thoughts commented, “I know what I’ve got to do to beat Gavin. I was the underdog the first time we fought and I’ll be the underdog again – but I was the underdog against Crolla and I outclassed him so I don’t
pay attention to the odds.”
It must be kept in mind that this is the second time that both men will meet in the ring. In their previous encounter, Derry was able to put forth an impressive performance which eventually convinced the judges to issue a draw decision.
The duo will strive hard since the bout is of utmost importance for both and if Derry grabs a win over Gavin, he will certainly move up in the rankings substantially.
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