By Scott Gilfoid: 33-year-old Rendall Munroe (27-3-1, 11 KO’s) is hoping that if he whips #6 WBC, #14 WBA, Lee Selby (17-1, 6 KO’s) this Saturday night that it’ll mean a second world title shot for him. Munroe and Selby will be facing each other for the vacant EBU featherweight title at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.

Selby’s British featherweight strap will also be on the line for the fight, although I doubt Munroe is too worked up about trying to win that little trinket. That’s a trifle for what Munroe is aiming towards. He wants a title shot against IBF featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez if he can beat Selby. However, I’m not hopeful that Munroe will get a title shot against Gonzalez off of a win over a simple contender like Selby, and I have strong doubts that Munroe has enough left in the tank to get past the lanky 5’8 1/2″ Selby.

“This is a step towards another world title shot,” Munroe said to Sky Sports. “After I win this fight I will be a two-weight European champion. The talk at the minute is that Selby is ready to challenge for a world title; so after I beat him does that not say that I will be ready for a shot at the world title?”

I’d have to say that Munroe’s chances of getting a world title shot against Gonzalez – or any of the other featherweight world champions – are about zero even if he beats the stuffing out of Selby on Saturday and leaves him in a bleeding heap on the canvas. Unfortunately for Munroe, there are other contenders ranked higher than Selby at the moment, so even if he takes his #6 ranking, it leaves the following contenders above him that will likely be given a chance over him: #1 Abner Mares, #2 Robinson Castellanos, #3 Gary Russell Jr., #4 Jayson Velez and #5 Ronny Rios.

Munroe has done a good job of turning his career around by winning his last three fights since his stoppage loss to Scott Quigg in 2012. Munroe has since beaten Laszlo Fekete, Andy Townend and Pavels Senkovs. But those opponents have been God awful, and the wins over them have proven little about Munroe, other than he can still beat poor opposition at this point in his career.

Selby will likely win this fight on Saturday, but I don’t see him going far in the division due to his complete lack of power. Selby is the type of fighter who needs to out-box his opponents, and when you’re facing big punchers like Gonzalez, Orlando Salido and Evgeny Gradovich, you’re going to take too many hard head shots to try and out-box them. Going 12 rounds with any of them is a painful experience, and Selby won’t likely be up for the job.