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Ringside Report Takes A Closer Look at Boxing Champion Lee Selby

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By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

The Welsh Mayweather, JR.

An amazing nickname to be given but perhaps, also, a massive burden.

For Lee Selby, 28-2, 9 KO’s, his trajectory was supposed to be assured but it has not turned out quite that way. There is little doubt that he is a very gifted boxer but the realization of the expectations that have surrounded him proved to be slightly too much though the final conclusion is still far off as he seeks to become a two weight world champion.

In his career he has managed a world title – IBF featherweight title from 2015 to 2018 as well as the full suite of Welsh, Celtic, British, Commonwealth and European titles at featherweight. Unlike the man with whom he was associated though his moniker above, he is only 4th in the BOXREC list of lightweights – he went up in weight to try and gain a second divisional world title – whilst Mayweather, JR. still sees himself and the #1 GOAT.

Selby’s very impressive career found one massive hiccup early on. In only his fifth fight, against Samir Mouneimne, he lost on points.

Picking himself up from that loss he went on to pick up the Welsh title in 2010 against Dai Davies in Newport, the Celtic title in 2011 with a win over Scot James Ancliff, also in Newport and then just 2 months later, he announced his arrival on the British scene with a win against the title holder of both the British and Commonwealth titles, Stephen Smith in Smith’s home town of Liverpool. He talked afterwards of it feeling like winning a world title and that was certainly the view of most ringside who believed it was only a matter of time that he managed that feat for real.

Successful defenses of his British and Commonwealth featherweight titles came in 2011 against John Simpson at York Hall, Patrick Okine in 2012, Martin Lindsay and Corey McConnell in 2013. Under the British Boxing Board of Control rules that means he is a British Champion who has won a Lonsdale Belt outright, having won it and defended it three times. What impressed most was that there were NO shortcuts, no picked opponents and no padded record.

He then announced himself on the world stage in July 2013 when he took the WBC international crown against Viorel Simion, who was ranked 4th in the WBC rankings at the time. It was a very tough fight and the biggest test thus far of his career – even bigger than getting back onto winning ways after an early loss.

He followed that up by defending once more his British and Commonwealth titles against Ryan Walsh before adding the EBU belt at featherweight in 2014, in Cardiff, against the wily Rendall Monroe.

From there it was a hop skip and jump to the IBF featherweight title. And in May 2015, at the 02 in London, he took on the unbeaten Evgeny Gradovich. Selby was to win the title by technical decision – Gradovich was cut in an accidental head clash and deemed unable to continue – there was a wide margin on the scorecards in his favor so it was a right decision for him to take the title.

In October of the same year he defended his title for the first time against Fernando Montiel in Glendale before returning to the 02, hitting the canvass for the first time in his career but successfully defending his world crown against Eric Hunter in 2016.

Then the test of his abilities were ramped up, not in the ring but outside of it as he went in against Jonathan Victor Barros in July 2017 to defend his belt just after the sudden death of his mother. Despite many who thought he should pull out within his family he went on to decision Barros after 12 hard fought rounds.

It was not the first time that Selby had found personal tragedy in his life. His older brother had passed and provided him with a greater dedication to become a world title and when he won the IBF belt, he dedicated it to his brother, Michael. This time round he discovered that his mother had lost her life on the Tuesday night of fight week. Selby told nobody. He got his fight done, turned in an amazingly impressive performance, dedicated the win to his mum, got in his car right after and drove straight home to Barry in wales, getting to his family before the sun rose on that Celtic nation.

Having made his name and got his title it made him a target and none more so from Josh Warrington who finally tracked him down in 2018, after Selby had defended the IBF title one more time against Eduard Ramirez in London, and took his title from his fairly firm grasp. It was only his second defeat but again he was to learn from it. He may have only lost by split decision – at least one judge thinking he had done enough to win, but what had truly beaten him was starving to get down to featherweight – a change was needed.
On the scales at the weigh in Selby cut a gaunt figure. There was little doubt he was cutting things to a fine line and the reality was that he was way beyond that line. Three weeks of crunching on lettuce leaves was hardly healthy for anyone and for an elite sportsman it was beyond ridiculous so he needed to seal his fate and go up in weight. Just how much he was cutting was shown when he went up not one but two divisions to lightweight.

In an interview in the UK, Selby was nothing more than honest when reflecting on this time as he was quoted as saying, “I wouldn’t eat,” Selby told The Independent. “I couldn’t spar for three weeks out from a fight because of how few calories I was eating. I was just on the cross-trainer or running all day. I would be constantly thinking about my weight, it was mentally draining. Looking back, I can’t even imagine how I did it.”

He made lightweight last year and beat Omar Douglas in February and then 50 fight veteran Ricky Burns in October.

He is now taking on the IBF number one contender in George Kambosos in an IBF lightweight title eliminator in Cardiff in October this year. The pair will fight to earn a shot at IBF lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez.

As always Selby has caution in his voice when he speaks of his future. As someone who knows the issues around his career as well as in the ring, like many in the UK he is cautious about coming back to fight after the pandemic. He was quoted in a BBC interview online, from a press conference to promote his fight of his concerns. I am sure he is not alone amongst the boxing fraternity when he says, “In my household I have two people at risk: my partner has congenital heart disease, she was born with two holes in her heart, but she’s been fine ever since the operations as a baby. But there is still a risk there. And my daughter has asthma so to get the confidence to go to the gyms and know that I’m not going to bring anything back to the house, that’s the only problem with me… If I was to box a 12-round fight or spar 12 rounds tomorrow I could do that no problem. But the sparring for a big fight like this, you’d need to be properly prepared so I’d need the sparring, maybe six weeks’ worth of quality sparring. But it’s having the confidence to go back into the gyms.”

Given what he has been through the confidence that I have in predicting he shall become a two weight Welsh Wizard is easy but even at the elite level there is concern over how we manage to get back boxing but also make sure we all do so safely and with as little risk as possible – wise words indeed.

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