By Jim Dower: IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby (23-1, 8 KOs) was forced to get up off the deck after getting knocked down in the 2nd round to come back to defeat #3 IBF Eric Hunter (21-4, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on Sky Box Office pay-per-view from the O2 Arena in London, UK.
The final judges scores were 115-111, 116-110 and 116-110. Hunter knocked Selby down with a left hook to the head in the 2nd round. Selby came back and dominated the remainder of the fight with his higher work rate.
Hunter focused on throwing pot shots, and he wasn’t nearly busy enough. From the 3rd round on, Hunter was throwing low blows. After giving him repeated warnings, the referee finally penalized Hunter one point in the 8th. In the 9th, the referee gave Hunter a final warning after he threw another low blow.
Selby didn’t have the hand speed or the punching power of Hunter, but he was the bigger and smarter fighter. That was the difference. Selby looked good for the most part. He’s definitely one of the top five featherweights in the division. Hunter was never hurt in the fight despite getting hit a lot. He did well in the center of the ring, but when he was backed up against the ropes, he would get hit. Hunter fought the entire fight with his hands down by his sides. Hunter showed good ability in anticipating Selby’s shots for the most part. However, with his hands down all the time, it caused Hunter to get hit a lot more than he would have had he kept his guard up.
There are arguably far superior fighters than Selby at featherweight though. You’d have to rate the following fighters as better than Selby: Gary Russell Jr., Vasyl Lomachenko, Leo Santa Cruz, and Abner Mares. Those guys are a cut above Selby. It’s not likely that Selby’s promoter Eddie Hearn will take the risk of letting him fight any of those guys.
Selby is interested in facing Carl Frampton. That’s a fight that he would take in a second if his promoter Eddie Hearn can arrange it.
Comments are closed.