Newbridge boxing club Gavin Rees shocked the world when he beat Frenchman Souleymane M'baye to win the WBA title before losing it to Andreas Kotelnik. Middleweight Gary Lockett held the lightly regarded WBU belt but achieved fame when he unsuccessfully challenged world number one Kelly Pavlik in Atlantic City for the undisputed middleweight crown. Two time World Light-Heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly trained at the club as an amateur and during the first three years of his professional career but left in 2008. The Newbridge Boxing Club, considering its location in such a small town, has had a disproportionate influence on the global boxing
Undisputed championship to become the first undisputed World Heavyweight Champion. The only other reigning champion with claim to the belt at the time was Tom Jenkins the American Heavyweight Championship, which unified the American Greco-Roman Championship with the American Catch-As-Catch Can Championship. Jenkins was eventually defeated by Frank Gotch, who took over as the only man with a potentially legitimate claim to being "the true champion". Hackenschmidt and Gotch finally met in the ring on April 3, 1908 in Chicago, Illinois. Gotch defeated Hackenschmidt to win the World Heavyweight Championship, then abandoned the American Heavyweight Championship in a process similar to today's