Gavin Rees Offers Ricky Hatton a Shot at his Old Title
Gavin Rees Offers Ricky Hatton a Shot at his Old Title
By Matt Goldstein
17/12/2007
By Matt Goldstein
17/12/2007
Undefeated WBA light welterweight titlist Gavin Rees has publicly offered Ricky Hatton a shot at his title. A stablemate of Joe Calzaghe, Rees won the belt from Souleymane M’baye in July. Although he lost his bid to become the world welterweight champion when he was knocked out by Floyd Mayweather, Hatton is still considered the true world champion at 140 pounds. First he beat Kostya Tzsyu who had united three of the major belts, then he added the WBA belt (which had been stripped from Tzsyu) when he defeated Carlos Maussa via knockout. Hatton eventually relinquished his 140-pound belts to face Luis Collazo for the WBA welterweight title, which he also won. Rees told the media, “it would hand Ricky a shot at a title, it’s a fight the British public will love, it’ll be England vs Wales and two warriors going toe-to-toe and it ticks all the boxes.” Rees continued, “I respect Ricky, he’s an incredible boxer and showed great courage by putting his reputation on the line to fight Mayweather, but now he’s looking for a title, he might like a go at me. I do believe I’d beat him.” Rees has an largely untested record of 27-0 with 13 knockouts and is trained by Calzaghe’s father Enzo. He is promoted by Hatton's former promoter Frank Warren, which could present a major stumbling block. Source: IC Wales