Little known Welshman tops Mbaye for WBA belt

Gavin Rees W12 Souleymane Mbaye... Gavin Rees is now boxing's least-known world champion as the unbeaten but unheralded junior welterweight came from nowhere to outpoint WBA titlist Souleymane Mbaye in Rees' home country, Wales, on Saturday. Rees, 27-0, defeated Mbaye by scores of 118-110, 117-112 and 117-113. Although he is now 27-0, Rees was in his first big fight since... well, ever. His best previous win was in 2001 over Nikolai Eremeev, then 15-1-2. Since then, Rees has built up a record against mostly professional losers (last fight: a six rounder vs. Billy Smith, 9-47), but the strategy has paid off with the acquisition of the WBA belt. Mbaye, now 35-2-1, was coming off a draw against Andreas Kotelnik. He has been suing the WBA since 2005. [Editor's note: It was mistakenly reported yesterday by Boxingtalk that Rees had no KOs on his record. In fact, he has 13 knockouts, all listed as technical knockouts]. source: bbc

Enzo Maccarinelli W12 Wayne Braithwaite... Also on the Cardiff, Wales show, WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli knocked Wayne Braitwaite down in the fifth and snet Braithwaite's mouthpiece flying two rounds later en route to a dominant win over a former WBC titlist. Maccarinelli won by scores of 119-108, 118-109 and 120-107 to improve to 27-1, while Braithwaite drops to 22-3. Maccarinelli is from Wales, which now has three world champions: Maccarinelli, Gavin Rees and Joe Calzaghe. source: bbc