Derry Mathews predicts 9th round stoppage over Rees
Posted: 27 Sep 2011, 15:51
Derry Mathews has vowed to upset the odds and return to Liverpool with Gavin Rees' European Lightweight title on Saturday night.
Mathews, over a year on from coming out of retirement, says he's turned his life around and wants to clinch the title as a thank you to the fans that have stuck by him.
He said: "I didn't want to go out as a fighter people remembered for being a punchbag, I think I've learned since coming back that it's not all about fighting and being brave, it's about boxing and using your brain."
The 27 year old credits his successful comeback to the faith shown in him by new trainer Oliver Harrison, and three generations of the Vaughan family who still have a major hand in steering his career. "George and Danny and Steven Vaughan young and old have been brilliant to me, my defeats to Choi (Tseveenpurev) and Scott Lawton were nothing to do with them, it was down to me, I just didn't perform. I got absolutely destroyed by Choi and I just gave up in the Lawton fight even though they'd got me in tremendous shape."
He added: "Me entering Prizefighter was all about getting the chance to put that defeat to Choi behind me, not many fighters get the chance to do that and even when people were telling me not to enter, Oliver was saying 'let's go and win it'."
Matthews (29/5) is the bookies outsider at the Newport Leisure Centre, but he says that only spurs him on: "I'm expecting a great fighter in Gavin Rees, he's a bit special and a major champion, he's going to come in all guns blazing and try to take my head off. He also thinks I'm 'chinny' and that he's earning easy money but he's in for a shock and I think I will stop him round about round 9."
Listen to both Mathews and Rees in episode four of The Liverpool Fight Night, free to download here on iTunes.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSt ... =463174777
Mathews, over a year on from coming out of retirement, says he's turned his life around and wants to clinch the title as a thank you to the fans that have stuck by him.
He said: "I didn't want to go out as a fighter people remembered for being a punchbag, I think I've learned since coming back that it's not all about fighting and being brave, it's about boxing and using your brain."
The 27 year old credits his successful comeback to the faith shown in him by new trainer Oliver Harrison, and three generations of the Vaughan family who still have a major hand in steering his career. "George and Danny and Steven Vaughan young and old have been brilliant to me, my defeats to Choi (Tseveenpurev) and Scott Lawton were nothing to do with them, it was down to me, I just didn't perform. I got absolutely destroyed by Choi and I just gave up in the Lawton fight even though they'd got me in tremendous shape."
He added: "Me entering Prizefighter was all about getting the chance to put that defeat to Choi behind me, not many fighters get the chance to do that and even when people were telling me not to enter, Oliver was saying 'let's go and win it'."
Matthews (29/5) is the bookies outsider at the Newport Leisure Centre, but he says that only spurs him on: "I'm expecting a great fighter in Gavin Rees, he's a bit special and a major champion, he's going to come in all guns blazing and try to take my head off. He also thinks I'm 'chinny' and that he's earning easy money but he's in for a shock and I think I will stop him round about round 9."
Listen to both Mathews and Rees in episode four of The Liverpool Fight Night, free to download here on iTunes.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSt ... =463174777