Lockett Breaks down Rees vs Broner

[whiskey]

18.01.13

Gary Lockett “Gavin Rees is 100% motivated for Broner”

By Michael J Jones


Ahead of his fighter’s intriguing WBC showdown with fringe-superstar Adrien Broner, Gary Lockett has spoken of Gavin Rees’ motivation to prove his doubters wrong. The bout, which takes place in Atlantic City on February 16, see’s European champion Rees taking on his toughest foe to date in lightweight champion Broner.

The gifted American has barely lost a round in the last two years and impressed last time out in his lightweight debut. Taking on then-champion Antonio DeMarco last November, Broner oozed class in systematically breaking down his durable opponent in eight one-sided rounds. The win took the Ohio stylist’s record to a perfect 25-0 (21) as he became a world champion in his second weight division.

As a former pro middleweight himself, Lockett has done wonders for his charge in the last few years in guiding him to British and European title success. Although at the relatively advanced age of 32, former world champion Rees, 37-1-1 (18), has looked better than ever of late and is talking a great fight in the build-up.

Many are calling the contest a mismatch but the under-rated Welshman’s trainer Gary begs to differ-

LF)So what do you make of Adrien Broner and have you been following his recent fights?

GL) No one can doubt Broner is a good fighter and lovely to watch but obviously we see things we can take advantage of and we think he may have been a little over-hyped.
The only two guys he’s fought who I really rated were DeMarco and Daniel Ponce DeLeon. DeMarco was too ponderous and I actually thought Ponce DeLeon out-worked Broner and beat him by a couple of points. The judge who gave it to Broner by a land-slide I really don’t know what fight he was watching.

LF) Have you seen Gavin be more motivated by this fight in camp?

GL) One-hundred percent. I’ll tell you about Gavin’s motivation as he doesn’t get motivated by much, when we were first offered the fight he said he’d take it even before money was even mentioned.

LF) What do you see in Broner in terms of weaknesses that you can exploit in the fight?

GL) There’s a few things really. His work-rate can be poor; sometimes he only seems to throw a couple of punches a round. He seems reluctant to jab at times and also lead off. I think he can also rely too much on his defence trying to be like Floyd Mayweather who is exactly who he tries to copy.

LF) There’s been a wave of negativity regarding Gavin’s chances in the fight from some quarters. Have you been surprised at how much your fighter has been written off before this fight?


GL) From who though? The real boxing people that I know have all given their support ahead of the fight. The others are people that don’t know anything about boxing. The people out there that are saying Rees will lose in a round…..Gavin has been dropped once in 39 fights and that was only because he had a perforated ear-drum and lost his equilibrium and was all over the place.

I’ve had positive comments from real boxing people like Dave Coldwell, Kevin Sanders etc their opinions matter more to me. Many people have said if Gav’ sets a high pace and fights on the outside he has a great chance.

LF) Why are you sure Rees will give Broner problems?

GL) We’ve got more than one game-plan and I absolutely know for positive that after the first few rounds Broner’s going to be asked questions from Gav’ he’s never had to deal with before. Gavin is so quick on the outside for his size, his jab is very fast and he has a good boxing brain. At one time Gav’ used to come out like a headless chicken and throw a hundred punches every round but we’ve settled him down now to work to his strengths. He gave away a lot of height to John Watson, who was 5’10”, but there he was completely out-jabbing him and beating him to the punch. He uses his lack of height to his advantage.

I’m not saying Gav’ will go out and knock Broner out a piece of cake but he’s got a bloody good chance. There’s no way he would ever have even taken the fight if he didn’t feel he could win it and I know Gav’ has already sacrificed a lot just to make the fight.

LF) Do you see similarities between this fight and the Calzaghe-Lacy fight?

GL) No not really, Joe was a world champion for ten years and was taking on the young gun who was meant to be ‘the next Tyson’. That was the defining fight for Joe as there were so many questions about him beforehand as he was kept in Cardiff and wasn’t allowed to fight overseas. With this fight, Gavin is a former world champion who has been given a new lease of life against a potential pound-for-pound fighter.


LF) Gavin Rees is regularly listed as 5’7”…..surely that’s not right?

GL) People keep telling me that but if he measured that height he would have been standing on a couple of ‘Yellow Pages’. Put it this way; my wife is only 5’4” and she towers above him!

LF) All the best for the fight Gary.

http://www.livefight.com/news.php?news_ ... =2013&m=01

[whiskey]

Is it just me who thinks Rees has a damn good chance in this?

I agree about the Ponce De Leon bout, and urge people to watch it and turn off the bias commentary. I'm tempted to stick a tenner on Rees.

[JLP]

Why are "real boxing people" always the ones who tell you what you want to hear and the ones who "don't know anything about boxing" are the ones who tell you what you don't want to hear?

[Counter-puncher]

Why are "real boxing people" always the ones who tell you what you want to hear and the ones who "don't know anything about boxing" are the ones who tell you what you don't want to hear?

I don't want to hear this from the likes of you

[forcefraser]

Rees is a solid fighter who is certainly willing to give his all in this fight. I think we`ll find out though that Broner is not the hype job that some people are making out.

Mid rounds stoppage for Broner after outclassing Rees from the start.

[billy nelson]

Why are "real boxing people" always the ones who tell you what you want to hear and the ones who "don't know anything about boxing" are the ones who tell you what you don't want to hear?

because boxing people understand and the people who dont know anything dont

[JLP]

Why are "real boxing people" always the ones who tell you what you want to hear and the ones who "don't know anything about boxing" are the ones who tell you what you don't want to hear?

because boxing people understand and the people who dont know anything dont

That's a pretty good response to be fair.

[SamWise72]

A one round blowout is nonsense, but I'll happily pin my prediction here; Rees to make it tight for the first half of the fight, whilst still clearly losing, but Broner to put him away around the 9th. If that makes me "not a real boxing person", so be it. The actual fight will be the judge.

[mickey1975]

I am a big fan of Rees, and have commented on how underated he is on here for a long time. But... this fight will depend on how good Broner is. If he is anything like the hype suggests, he wins easily. Kotelnik beat Gavin up quite badly, forget what the commentators were saying.

[Wales]

I think Gary will pull Rees out around 8 or 9. Gav is as tough as they come and is a pretty big lightweight, if not in height in mass. But Broner is a level or two above Gavin in my opinion. And as the fight goes on he could start teeing off.

Seen it so often over the years when British fighters go from British / Euro fights to genuine world class and are found wanting. Locket himself was one fairly recently, Michael Jennings another. gav hasnt been in world class for nigh on 5 years.

As said above if that makes me someone who isnt a boxing person so be it. Proof will be in the pudding, and I hope for the record both "the rock" and "the rocket" come on here and stick a big two fingers up at idiots like me becasue they solve the problem on Feb 16th. I just dont think they will.

As a side I wouldve thought getting in close to Broner wouldve been preferable to staying on the outside. Gav will surely be stronger and all signs point to Broner not being a particularly good trainer so a high work rate on the inside may take him out of his comfort zone.

Looking forward to this one!

[Old bones Ian]

I'm going for a fight where we see the difference between Euro and World level.

Similar to Jennings v Cotto and Lockett v Pavlik.

[forcefraser]

I think Gary will pull Rees out around 8 or 9. Gav is as tough as they come and is a pretty big lightweight, if not in height in mass. But Broner is a level or two above Gavin in my opinion. And as the fight goes on he could start teeing off.

Seen it so often over the years when British fighters go from British / Euro fights to genuine world class and are found wanting. Locket himself was one fairly recently, Michael Jennings another. gav hasnt been in world class for nigh on 5 years.

As said above if that makes me someone who isnt a boxing person so be it. Proof will be in the pudding, and I hope for the record both "the rock" and "the rocket" come on here and stick a big two fingers up at idiots like me becasue they solve the problem on Feb 16th. I just dont think they will.

As a side I wouldve thought getting in close to Broner wouldve been preferable to staying on the outside. Gav will surely be stronger and all signs point to Broner not being a particularly good trainer so a high work rate on the inside may take him out of his comfort zone.

Looking forward to this one!

Spot on fella. I don`t think there are many on here who doesn`t want Rees to win. Him actually doing it is a very different story. Broner has shown enough to me so far that I cannot see how Rees will last the distance.

[Emmseegee]

When all the talk of Burns fighting Broner started I thought Burns could maybe bully him and rough him up.
After the DeMarco fight I kinda changed my opinion, Broner looked really comfortable on the inside and he has a real nasty side to him aswell, he looks like he really wants to do damage.

I would also like Rees to win, Ive enjoyed watching his career as i find his style exciting to watch BUT can't really see a way of him winning this. Hopefully i'm wrong.

[crusader]

Is it just me who thinks Rees has a damn good chance in this?

I agree about the Ponce De Leon bout, and urge people to watch it and turn off the bias commentary. I'm tempted to stick a tenner on Rees.

I think that PDL deserved to win against Broner, but I also think that the latter has improved greatly since that bout, which was a huge step-up for him. I've noticed that you continually mention the bout in threads about Broner, but in my opinion it's not indicative of his current form.

I expect Broner to outclass and stop Rees. Gomez, how do you think that Rees would beat Broner? Would he outbox him? Would he come right to him and win on points by outworking him? Would he overpower, outspeed, or outlast him?

[Horse]

I'm going for a fight where we see the difference between Euro and World level.

Similar to Jennings v Cotto and Lockett v Pavlik.

Broner isn't as good as Cotto or Pavlik and Rees is better than Jennings and Lockett.

[SamWise72]

i think Rees' best shot is to crowd him and work the body hard, but i don't think it'll work.

[forcefraser]

I'm going for a fight where we see the difference between Euro and World level.

Similar to Jennings v Cotto and Lockett v Pavlik.

Broner isn't as good as Cotto or Pavlik and Rees is better than Jennings and Lockett.

Broner isn`t as good as Pavlik? Really? Is this the Pavlik who was schooled by a 45 year old Hopkins?

[rhino222]

Rees has a punchers chance but I fear will be broken down in about 7 rounds.

[Horse]

Broner isn`t as good as Pavlik? Really? Is this the Pavlik who was schooled by a 45 year old Hopkins?

Broner was schooled by De Leon.

[mickey1975]

Broner isn`t as good as Pavlik? Really? Is this the Pavlik who was schooled by a 45 year old Hopkins?

Broner was schooled by De Leon.

He was not. At a similar stage, Pavlik was very nearly knocked out by Jermain Taylor.

[JLP]

I'm going for a fight where we see the difference between Euro and World level.

Similar to Jennings v Cotto and Lockett v Pavlik.

Broner isn't as good as Cotto or Pavlik and Rees is better than Jennings and Lockett.

Time will tell how good Broner is and will be. I agree with the second part of your sentence.

[Final round]

Good interview. Gavin accepted the fight without money being mentioned, a great attitude .
Broner is listed as as 5' 7" too

[tonyevs]

I see Gavin giving it his all, just as everyone expects.
And his size & enthusiasm will make it look close.
Then its a question of how quickly Broner works him out and how many rounds Gavin has to survive once his stamina deserts him.

I would really like to see Gavin be able to confuse Broner for the whole 12rnds with his quick burst attacks in & out. But sadly I just don't see Broner overlooking that regular pattern of Gavin's style.

[whiskey]

Gomez, how do you think that Rees would beat Broner? Would he outbox him? Would he come right to him and win on points by outworking him? Would he overpower, outspeed, or outlast him?

I think Rees will look to raid in and out, ambush style from the perimeter.

He will feint and spring in behind the jab - whilst Broner will look for hooks as he comes in.

[Wrists]

Why are "real boxing people" always the ones who tell you what you want to hear and the ones who "don't know anything about boxing" are the ones who tell you what you don't want to hear?

because boxing people understand and the people who dont know anything dont

That's a frankly stupid thing to say.

Do you have to have played/participated in sport at a high level to know what you are talking about?

Absolute tosh Billy.

Yes, those who say it'll be a one round blowout are daft but we shouldnt use that as a yardstick to beat non participants with.

Dear me, what next.

You can't tell if something tastes nice unless your a michelin star chef??