Last night Lee “The Barry Boy Assassin” Selby (22-1, 8 KO’s) made his American debut as he successfully defended his IBF featherweight title against former three-time world champion Fernando “Cochlito” Montiel on ESPN. Two of the judges had Selby well ahead of Montiel, and the third judge had the fight much closer. Despite the age, height and reach advantage possessed by Shelby, Montiel was able to show flaws in Selby’s arsenal. While some may say that Shelby looked great against Montiel, others, including Shelby would disagree about his performance.
“It was awkward in there, and you have to say fair play to Montiel as he is a really clever fighter who knows how to make it difficult for you,” said Selby. “I was missing with a fair number of shots and was that because my timing was off or because he was so good at getting out the way? It was probably a bit of both.”
His first fight in the U.S. wasn’t up to par as he had hoped, but you can’t be perfect all the time. Selby would love to fight in the U.S. again and put on an even better showing the next time around.
“I loved fighting in America, and I can’t wait to do it again, hopefully with a better display. You can’t be 10 out of 10 all the time, especially against really high-class opponents, but I would have liked to impress more.”
There are many options for Selby in the featherweight division with the likes of Nicholas Walters, Gary Russell Jr., Vasyl Lomachenko and Abner Mares but there is another fighter in the division that has caught his attention “El Famoso Terremoto” Leo Santa Cruz. With a list like that one would hope that any fight would come to fruition but the thing that Selby is most concerned about is staying bust and fighting the top fighters in the division.
“Leo Santa Cruz is a name that have been mentioned, and I’d have no problem fighting him at all. I’d love that. I saw his fight with Abner Mares, which was good, so I have seen first hand what he can do. That would be a great fight for me. I only want the big names and Santa Cruz certainly belongs in that category.”
