A terrific afternoon of live boxing is in store for fight fans as Lee Selby and Rendall Munroe battle for the vacant European Featherweight title as well as Selby’s British title live and exclusively on AWE – A Wealth of Entertainment.
The main event will headline a full fight card from the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales and will be shown in the United States on AWE starting at 3 pm ET / Noon PT.
The exciting co-feature will pit former WBA Super Lightweight champion Gavin Rees battle Gary Buckland in a 12 round Lightweight bout.
“This is a great doubleheader to start our 2014 boxing program”, said AWE President Charles Herring. “These will be exciting fights and it will be a great afternoon of boxing.”
Selby of Barry, Wales has a record of 17-1 with six knockouts
The 26 year-old turned professional in 2008 and is on a 13 fight win streak which includes a slew of quality victories over the likes of Stephen Smith (12-0) to win the British Featherweight title; Patrick Okine (11-1-1) to win the Commonwealth Featherweight title; Martin Lindsey (20-1); Corey McConnell (11-0-1); Viorel Simon (16-0) and in his last bout Selby scored a 12 round unanimous decision over Ryan Walsh (16-0-1) on October 5, 2013 to retain his British and Commonwealth titles.
Munroe of Leicester, England is a three-time world title challenger and has a record of 27-3-1 with 11 knockouts.
He won his first ten bouts as a pro and then came up short in his 1st attempt to capture the British Featherweight title when he dropped a close decision to Andy Morris (13-0). Munroe then went on a roll where he won 11 straight which included 2 wins over future and current IBF Jr. Featherweight champion Kiko Martinez. The first win was for the European Super Bantamweight title and Munroe made six defenses of the title with wins over Arson Martirosyan (12-1) and Simone Maludrottu (30-2). The win over Maludrottu doubled as an elimination bout that forced a final eliminator bout with Victor Terrazas (26-1-1).
Munroe was up for the challenge as he stopped Terrazas in nine rounds to set up a title fight with WBC Champion Toshiaki Nishioka. Munroe traveled to Japan and came up a bit short in his first shot at a world title.
Munroe was not deterred as he won three straight to set up a 2nd world title shot with fellow Brit Scott Quigg (24-0) for the WBA Crown.
Unfortunately Munroe was cut in the 3rd round of their 1st contest which set up a rematch that saw the classy Quigg score a 6th round stoppage. Since that fight, Munroe has won three in a row which includes a decision win over Pavels Senkovs on November 2nd.
In the co-feature, Rees of Newbridge, Wales will look to get back in the title picture. He has a record of 37-3-1 with 18 knockouts.
Rees won the WBA Super Lightweight title with a 12 round unanimous decision over Soulemayne M’baye. Rees dropped the title in his 1st defense as he was stopped in the final round against Andriy Kotelnik.
Rees went on to win eight fights in a row and captured a Prizefighter championship as well as the European Lightweight championship when he stopped previously undefeated John Murray (13-0) in 11 rounds.
He defended the crown four times before coming to America and putting up a terrific effort before being stopped by Adrien Broner in five rounds. Rees will be looking to get back in the column after losing a 12 round majority decision to Anthony Crolla on June 29, 2013.
Buckland of Cardiff, Wales has a record of 27-3 with 9 knockouts. He won 18 of his 1st 20 fights. He lost via 11th round stoppage to undefeated John Murray (28-0) for the British Lightweight title. After that defeat, Buckland won nine fights in a row, including the Prizefighter Lightweight championship with wins over Derry Matthews (23-4); Gary Sykes (16-0) and Stevie Bell (18-2-2).
Buckland won the British Super Featherweight title with a 12 round unanimous decision in the rematch with Sykes.
He defended the title twice with wins over Paul Truscott (18-2) and Stephen Foster (30-3-1) before dropping the title in his most recent outing via 5th round stoppage to Stephen Smith (16-1) on August 17, 2013.
