EVER-WILLING East Ham welterweight, Johnny Greaves, stepped in at less than 24 hours notice at the Newport Leisure Centre on Friday night to face former world champion Gavin Rees, writes LEN WHALEY. Former WBA light-welterweight title-holder Rees, known a

EVER-WILLING East Ham welterweight, Johnny Greaves, stepped in at less than 24 hours notice at the Newport Leisure Centre on Friday night to face former world champion Gavin Rees, writes LEN WHALEY.

Former WBA light-welterweight title-holder Rees, known as "The Rock", was returning after almost a year and a half out of the ring on the Calzaghe Promotions show, and was due to face Stoke veteran Gary Reid.

With the shock withdrawal of Reid, Greaves received the last-minute call to step in, and promptly headed for Wales to face a rival who had suffered just a single defeat in 28 contests.

Busy Greaves, who earned only his second win in 38 fights beating Ali Wyatt in London on August 10, hardly surprisingly suffered a stoppage defeat when his cornermen pulled him out with a badly swollen eye after four rounds.

However, Greaves, who works as a cook in a Barking Road pie and mash shop, was satisfied with his ability to test the ambition of the former world champion in some hard fought exchanges.

"To be frank, I thought I did well considering I took the fight against a former world champion at just a day's notice." he said.

"Rees threw a lot of punches but did not have much power and I was able to trade blows with him before I suffered the eye injury which prompted my cornermen to stop the fight."

Crowd-pleaser Greaves even took the chance to show-boat, entertaining the Welsh fans with his Ali-shuffle, but Rees was finding his target as the fight wore on, landing the punches that had seen him defeat Souleymane M'baye to take the WBA belt two years ago.

Beaten Greaves returned to his duties in the pie and mash shop, but stays in shape ready to answer any emergency call from a promoter desperately seeking an 'opponent'.