By Scott Gilfoid: British and Commonwealth featherweight champion Lee Selby (14-1, 5 KO’s) is the latest addition to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport stable. The announcement is expected to be made tomorrow by Hearn, and following that Selby will be fighting on April 20th on the Brian Rose vs. Joachim Alcine card against an opponent still to be determined at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, Lancashire, United Kingdom.
Hearn’s Matchroom stable has really expanded lately with the addition of George Groves and Ricky Burns. Selby isn’t in their class, and this is definitely a much, much smaller deal than Hearn’s recent acquisitions. However, Selby a decent fighter and he may possibly snatch the European featherweight title next with a little luck. However, that’s kind of the end of the line for Selby.
Selby doesn’t have the power to compete with the world class featherweights, and if you put him in with the likes of Mikey Garcia, Daniel Ponce De Leon and Evgeny Gradovich, he wouldn’t be a pretty picture. By the same token, Selby won’t be able to find any easy marks if he moves up to super featherweight because the champions at that weight still have too much pop for him. Can you imagine what WBA super featherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama would do to Selby?
It would be a slaughter plain and simple. Selby’s huge size has been his biggest asset in the featherweight division. That’s kind of how he’s been able to get over, but it won’t help him once he gets past the Euro level because the guys are nearly the same size as him if not bigger, and they are so much stronger than that it’s not even funny. If you throw Selby in the ring with Mikey Garcia it would be like a lamb being led to the slaughter by a hungry wolf. Selby wouldn’t stand a chance.
I’m not really sure what the logic is for Hearn to be signing Selby. I could understand it if he’s just looking to get a good domestic/European level fighter, but I thought Hearn’s thing was to snatch up world champion or fighters that have the potential to become a world champion.
I don’t see that with Selby. The power just isn’t there, and he’s not going to be able to slap his way to a decision win against Mikey Garcia or Ponce De Leon. And if you put Selby in with Abner Mares, he’ll take a beating. Why sign a guy that is not going to be able to get past the European level? I don’t understand it.
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