By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (4-1, 2 KOs) can pretty much forget about fighting IBF featherweight champ Lee Selby (21-1, 8 KOs) in a unification fight anytime soon. Selby is saying that he won’t be looking to fight a unification fight for several more years. I think Selby realizes now that if he were to take a unification fight with Lomachenko or someone like WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr., both of those guys would easily beat him. It probably wouldn’t even be competitive. So instead of taking a beating against those guys and likely losing his title, Selby will be milking his IBF strap against the IBF contenders.
Selby, 28, says he wants to get in a lot of title defenses of his newly won IBF featherweight strap that he picked up on May 30th in getting an 8th round cut stoppage win over champion Evgeny Gradovich in a fight that took place at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
After the fight, Selby said he wanted to get in a couple of title defenses of his IBF title before moving on to unify the titles against the other featherweight champions. But it now looks like Selby has had a change of mind, and wants to wait three years before he faces any of the other champs. By that point, Selby would be 31-years-old if he’s still the IBF champ, and Lomachenko will be 30.
“Down the line [Selby will fight the other featherweight champions]. At the moment I’d like to establish myself as the IBF champion, and get as many defenses as I can,” Selby said to Boxing News. “And then in a few years look for a unification fight.”
Lomachenko’s manager Egis Klimas recently said that he wants to match Lomachenko up against either former WBA featherweight champion Simpiwe Vetyeka (27-3, 16 KOs) or Selby for his next fight. Klimas says that Selby was pointing at him after his win over Gradovich, saying that he wanted to fight Lomachenko. Well, it doesn’t look like Selby is actually interested in taking on the tough Ukrainian, at least not interested in the near future.
Three years might as well be a lifetime if that’s how long Selby is actually going to wait before fighting Lomachenko, because a lot change in that much time. First off, I can’t see the feather-fisted Selby holding onto his IBF title for three years. I mean, there are way too many big punchers in the featherweight division that Selby would have to defend his title against in the next three years for him to get to a fight against Lomachenko.
For example, the #3 IBF contender right now is Abner Mares and #4 is Jayson Velez. I have a hard time seeing Selby beat either of those guys. Selby can run around and try to be slick all he wants, but those guys are going to catch him and nail him with shots. Selby did a lot of clinching when Gradovich got in close enough to throw punches against him in their fight last May, but clinching isn’t going to stop guys like Mares and Velez. They’ve fought clinchers before, and unlike Gradovich, they’ll know what to do to shutdown Selby’s constant holding. The thing is once Selby loses his IBF title, he can pretty much forget all about a fight against Lomachenko, because he’ll be useless to him at that point.
The good money that Selby would have made in a fight against Lomachenko will be gone. He’ll have lost that opportunity to make that good cash by losing to Mares or Velez.
“We’re looking at Vetyeka, a former champion, and maybe Selby in a unification fight,” Klimas said via ESPN.com. “Selby got a title from Gradovich and he was pointing to me after the fight saying he wants Lomachenko. We’ll see how strong his word is.”
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