2008: High Tide For British Boxing – Gavin Rees vs. Andreas Kotelnik

Part Two of a multi-part series

On Saturday, March 22, WBA Light Welter Champion Gavin Rees is set to make the first defense of his crown when he faces German based Ukrainian Andreas Kotelnik at the International Arena in Cardiff, Wales.

While this bout isn’t quite up to the anticipation level of the Haye vs. Maccarinelli contest that we profiled in part one of this series, it is a legitimate world title clash and the winner will likely face Ricky Hatton in the fall of this year.

In his most recent appearance, Welshman Rees, 27-0 (13), jumped out of nowhere to win the WBA belt with a sound thrashing of Souleymane M’baye in July of last year at the International Arena.

The decided underdog in that matchup, Rees overcame the much more experienced M’baye with a high volume attack that never really let the Frenchman into the scrap.

While Rees has been making waves in calling out Hatton in the press, the 27 year old is defending his belt against a far more appropriate opponent for this point in his career.

30 year old Kotelnik, 28-2-1 (12), has held a variety of regional titles at 140 lb but has always been beaten back when the stakes have risen to world class level.

The Hamburg man dropped a very close WBA title eliminator to M’baye in France in 2004 and came closer to upsetting “The Sensation” for the full WBA title in March of last year but had to settle for a draw.

Perhaps Kotelnik’s greatest moment was the controversial unanimous decision loss to current WBC Light Welter kingpin Junior Witter in July of 2005 when “The Hitter” was defending his European crown.

Many in attendance and the media felt that Kotelnik had nicked it and aside from an early loss to Zab Judah, it stands as the most difficult fight to date for Witter.

Can Kotelnik shake off the big fight monkey on his back? Is Rees a legitimate world champion? Will the winner just get pounded out by any of the other champions in a unification bout anyway?

All questions will be answered on March 22 but for the much shorter Rees to defend his crown, he’ll have to replicate his suffocating performance against M’baye but the question is, will Kotelnik be as reluctant to let his own arsenal go as M’baye was against Rees?

As the bout is taking place on British soil, Kotelnik will have to either stop Rees, who reportedly has an iron chin, or win just about every round in a clear cut fashion if he is to take the WBA belt back to Hamburg.

It will be very interesting to see just what happens when these two begin to match wits and fists.