Matchroom Sport’s inaugural show of the new year takes place on Saturday, 1 February 2014 at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales and features the promotional team’s two stand out Welsh boxers, Lee Selby and Gavin Rees in good fights on what should be a passionate night in the Principality.
The main event pits Selby, 17-1 (6), from Barry, against veteran Rendall Munroe, 27-3-1 (11), the former boxing binman from Leicester. Selby puts his British title on the line for the fourth time and also up for grabs is the vacant European title, for which Selby is competing for the first time, whilst Munroe was European champion at his previous weight of super-bantamweight. The EBU European title is one of those belts which is well worth winning, as it still carries plenty of prestige in the boxing world, not to mention a virtually guaranteed top 15 ranking with the WBC.
This fight is between a man who appears to be on the final hike up to the mountain-top and another who is fast rolling down the far side of that mountain. Selby’s one defeat, to Samir Mouniemne back in May 2009, in a four-rounder, seems totally irrelevant now. He is on a fine run of form which has enabled him to see off just about every potential challenger in the U.K., including the resurgent Stephen Smith, now British champion at super-featherweight. Selby’s eighth round knockout of Smith in September 2011 is looking better all the time.
It must be said that at one time Selby was being considered a really heavy hitter, thanks in no small part to that knockout of Smith. However, he has had to go the full 12 round distance in three of his last four fights, and his overall knockout percentage is not really that impressive.
Munroe spent the best part of his career at the lower weight, as stated before, holding the European title and making five successful defences of that title, including both winning and defending it against current IBF champion Kiko Martinez. That form resulted in Munroe being rewarded with a WBC title fight, for which he had to go to Japan to challenge longstanding champion Toshiaki Nishioka in October 2010. Although not embarrassed in that fight, Munroe was well beaten, with the concensus being that he had taken just one of the 12 rounds.
Munroe has never looked the same fighter since that defeat. It is possible that such a wide loss shattered his inner confidence and belief that he could compete at the very top level. His only meaningful fights since that world title challenge have come against Bury’s Scott Quigg, now the WBA champion at super-bantamweight. His first fight with Quigg ended on a technical decision with Munroe horrendously cut, and the second resulted in a one-sided victory for Quigg in which he put Munroe to the sword with a sustained body attack. Selby will have been watching that fight with interest. He is himself renowned for his body attack, having knocked out Scot John Simpson in an earlier British title defence with a body shot of his own.
Munroe looked a shadow of his former self in the second fight with Quigg and has since scored three meaningless victories over non-entities. Selby is both bigger and at least as strong as Quigg and could dish out a similar beating to Munroe. However, Munroe knows this is his last chance to return to the big time. He will put forth a supreme effort and this, allied to Selby’s recent failure to score stoppage victories, leads me to believe Rendall can go the distance. However, Selby has big plans for the future and should win a comfortable decision over 12 rounds.
It is good to see Selby holding onto the Lonsdale Belt, which incidentally he has already won outright. Too often these belts are discarded when they are no longer considered useful. Selby is ranked inside the top 15 with all four governing bodies and it will be interesting to see which champion/belt his promoter intends to pursue in the coming months.
The chief support is actually the most highly anticipated fight on the card, as it brings two Welsh warriors into direct confrontation with each other. Gavin Rees, 37-3-1 (18), the former WBA light-welterweight champion takes on traveller Gary Buckland, 27-3 (9), the former British super-featherweight champion, in an eliminator for the British lightweight title. These are two of the most relentless fighters in Britain, both of whom hardly stop throwing punches from first bell to last. It could end up being one of the domestic fights of the year.
Rees will start as the favourite. He has fought at a consistently higher level than Buckland, including facing the likes of Souleymane M’Baye, when he won his WBA title; Andreas Kotelnik, when he lost it; and, subsequently, Adrien Broner in a challenge for the WBC lightweight title. He was actually doing well in that fight, 12 months ago, for three rounds before Broner’s speed and power proved too much for him. Since that defeat Rees has only had one fight, another defeat on points over 12 rounds to British rival Anthony Crolla. That was on a close majority decision and this writer felt that Rees had done enough to earn a share of the spoils. In fact, Rees had slacked off in the final three rounds, afterwards admitting that he had taken his foot off the gas as he thought he had a big lead on the scorecards.
Buckland is moving back up to lightweight for this fight, the weight he spent the first part of his career at, until being overpowered in a challenge for the British and European titles by then British champion John Murray. Gary gave everything that night and went with Murray all the way, but he was just not strong enough to hold off the hard as nails Mancunian. This defeat prompted Buckland’s move down to super-featherweight, which proved a great success, bringing the British title and two successful defences of the same, until Buckland was on the wrong end of one of the stand-out knockouts of 2013, at the hands of challenger Stephen Smith. Buckland took an uppercut in the fifth round and was out before he hit the floor.
Buckland is quoted as saying that he will be much stronger at lightweight. Not quite sure how this can be, when the reason he moved to a lower weight in the first place was that he was not strong enough to compete at lightweight. Rees has also been quoted recently as saying that his career is on the line and that if he loses to Buckland he will quit the sport. This being the case, I would expect Rees to have trained well for the fight and to be at his outstanding best. It should be a slugfest to remember but Rees’ extra experience with regularly facing bigger opponents, and at the top level, should see him home. I am going with a clear but fairly close points victory for Rees.
The main interest on the undercard lies with the fourth professional fight for Olympic Gold Medallist Anthony Joshua, 3-0 (3). Josh takes on another Welshman, Dorian Darch, 7-2 (1), and will be anxious to continue his run of stoppage victories. Darch was a decent amateur, winning the Welsh amateur super-heavyweight title in 2011, but has already been thrown in tough as a professional. He was stopped in four rounds in December 2012 by heavy hitter Ian Lewison, but in his other defeat, against another hot prospect, Hughie Fury, in September 2013, he managed to go the full six rounds. If Lewison can beat Darch inside the distance be assured that Joshua will also. Take Joshua to stop his man in about three rounds.
This nicely rounded card also features Welsh light-welterweight prospect Chris Jenkins, 12-0 (5), in a 12-rounder, when he has never before gone past 6. A nice step-up for the former Prizefighter winner as he faces Frenchman Christophe Sebire, 22-6 (8). Sebire is a former French champion at light-welterweight and is a fine test for Jenkins. Chris will have to go the full 12 rounds to get the victory.
Overall it should be a terrific night’s boxing, with something for everyone and plenty of thrills and spills in the two main events. The card will be televised in the U.K. on Sky Sports.
@RachelAylett1
