NEWBRIDGE’S Gavin Rees can count on the support of his old friend Joe Calzaghe as he looks to capture the EBU European lightweight title in Cardiff on Saturday.

Rees’ former stablemate will be cheering him on from ringside at the Motorpoint Arena for the clash with highly-rated Irishman Andrew Murray.

“I’ve known Gavin since he was nine, since he first started boxing and he trained with me and my dad,” said former world champion Calzaghe.

“It’s been over 20 years that I’ve been close to him, not only as a fighter but also as a friend.

“I’ll always follow his career closely even though he’s no longer training with us and I always wish him the best of luck. I love Gavin, but even more so, I love watching him win titles.”

Calzaghe is delighted that his old friend is back on the title trail three years after he lost the WBA world light-welterweight belt to Andriy Kotelnik in his first defence.

Rees has his eyes on a world title shot at lightweight after triumphing in the Prizefighter light-welter event and winning the British lightweight prize last time out.

“I was over the moon for him at Prizefighter because he proved to himself and to everyone else that he could win big titles,” said Calzaghe.

“He lost his world title to Kotelnik and I think he’d admit himself that he didn’t train as hard as he should have done for a defence of the World title. But to go into Prizefighter as a marked man in the line-up and take the title was a great achievement. “The frustrating thing with Gavin is as long as he trains 100 per cent and has his mind on the job he can be world class.

“Unfortunately, in the past he hasn’t prepared as well as he should have and hasn’t fulfilled his potential.

“When he won the world title he was in tremendous shape but in the defence against Kotelnik he didn’t train the way he should’ve.

“But he’s come back and won the British title and he’s back in form, he can mix it with the best and who knows? He’s young enough to move into world title contention if he wins on Saturday night.”

Calzaghe is now concentrating on his acting career but he looks back on Team Calzaghe’s success at his dad Enzo’s gym in Newbridge with great affection, a time when he, Rees and Enzo Maccarinelli all won world titles.

“It was an amazing time for a small gym with my dad to have three world champions,” he said.

“It’s just an incredible achievement for an unfashionable little town in the valleys. It was the kind of thing that will never happen again – you rarely see it in the big famous gyms, so for us to achieve it in Newbridge was something special – and Bradley Pryce was also Commonwealth champion and Gary Lockett was WBU champion too, all trained by my dad, and Nathan Cleverly has gone on to be a world champ too.

“It was a great time for us, fighting in places like the Millennium Stadium and those sorts of venues around the world.

“To have your gym-mates and your friends sitting at ringside or on the undercard of these massive nights was just an incredible time.”

“My dad is a hard taskmaster, he would push us, but at the end of the day we also had a bit of fun.

“We’d train hard but then we’d have a bit of fun because we were all friends and bounced off each other, it was great, a pleasure to go to the gym and work hard.”