BoxRec

If Rees had some power to his punches he would do so much better. It's a shame.

Rees impressed me with his heart and bravery but that was about it, while I understand everyone was edging towards Rees in some of the closer rounds I don't think it was close. I had Kotelnik 3 up going into the last and that was being generous to Rees.

His complete lack of defence was his downfall as much as fighting at least 2 weight categories higher than he should be. That's what happens when a 6/8 round fighter gets a lucky break. He's lucky M'Baye was so lacklustre or this would have happened to him last year IMO. At least Calzaghe now has the chance to sort this all out. Lose the weight and come back at Lightweight or ideally Superfeather and work on keeping his hands up.

Not sure how the real judges take it, but I'd rather go with a feeling on the 10 point orund scoring system.

Rees can powder puff away for two and a half minutes with fifty nothing shots, that's not gonna catch my eye. Workrate comes a poor second to quality IMO. If Kotelnik watches him closely and then opens up with 30 seconds left, hurting Rees and landing five or six meaningful shots, he's gonna win my round every day of the week.
Granted, if he does nothing all fight then he doesn't get any points, but does this mean that defence has no bearing at all. In that round 7, Kotelnik out defended Rees and out attacked him. Blocked Rees' work, picked his opening and then shoed that Rees had nothing but schoolboy errors on the back foot.
If Rees couldn't get through in the majority of the round even though little was coming back, he doesn't deserve 10 pts!


Going back to Enzo, I don't know how he has improved Macca. Certainly no more than we could naturally expect anyway. I lost it with Enzo C when he said 'Macca didn't follow the gameplan' - as if his work had been done in the gym and he had no bearing on the fight. Which is fine, until you learn that he didn't have Macca on weights, didn't get any extra sparring in of any quality. Rees has massive technical deficiencies and is fighting at the wrong weight. I know someone mentioned that he looked in decent condition - he looked overweight to me. I think there's scope for at least 7lbs less on his frame, round the waist he was borderline fat.

nickd wrote:Rees impressed me with his heart and bravery but that was about it, while I understand everyone was edging towards Rees in some of the closer rounds I don't think it was close. I had Kotelnik 3 up going into the last and that was being generous to Rees.

His complete lack of defence was his downfall as much as fighting at least 2 weight categories higher than he should be. That's what happens when a 6/8 round fighter gets a lucky break. He's lucky M'Baye was so lacklustre or this would have happened to him last year IMO. At least Calzaghe now has the chance to sort this all out. Lose the weight and come back at Lightweight or ideally Superfeather and work on keeping his hands up.

I agree with that, but as I build my gripe with Enzo Calzaghe - if he couldn't encourage Rees to get his hands up against such a straight punching fighter with reach advantage like Kotelnik - either in the training camp or from the corner - then he's nowhere near 'trainer of the year'. He was banging on about heart and desire to Rees between rounds. wtf?? He was showing plenty of heart hanging his chin out round on round. Calzaghe should have been telling him how to hold a f**king guard up!!

sharpei_louis wrote:

nickd wrote:Rees impressed me with his heart and bravery but that was about it, while I understand everyone was edging towards Rees in some of the closer rounds I don't think it was close. I had Kotelnik 3 up going into the last and that was being generous to Rees.

His complete lack of defence was his downfall as much as fighting at least 2 weight categories higher than he should be. That's what happens when a 6/8 round fighter gets a lucky break. He's lucky M'Baye was so lacklustre or this would have happened to him last year IMO. At least Calzaghe now has the chance to sort this all out. Lose the weight and come back at Lightweight or ideally Superfeather and work on keeping his hands up.

I agree with that, but as I build my gripe with Enzo Calzaghe - if he couldn't encourage Rees to get his hands up against such a straight punching fighter with reach advantage like Kotelnik - either in the training camp or from the corner - then he's nowhere near 'trainer of the year'. He was banging on about heart and desire to Rees between rounds. wtf?? He was showing plenty of heart hanging his chin out round on round. Calzaghe should have been telling him how to hold a f**king guard up!!

True, the corner work wasn't great but I have the feeling they knew from round 3 onwards that he wasn't going to win.

I got the impression from their demeanour afterward, that they always felt they were up against it.

Rees is not unrealistic, he knew he was up against it.