By Ian Aldous: On Saturday May 19th, Lee Selby (26-1) will attempt to defend his IBF world featherweight championship against the undefeated Josh Warrington (26-0), at the home of Warrington’s beloved Leeds United Football Club. Elland Road hosts world championship boxing for the very first time, live on BT Sport in the UK. It promises to be another special night of British boxing, following in the footsteps of other outdoor fights at Wembley Stadium, Bramall Lane and the Principality Stadium in 2017. Last week, Selby took some time to chat with me over the phone about the fight and his unbeaten opponent.
IA: This will be the fifth defence of your IBF world championship, do you think that it’s a career defining defence considering the scope and size of the fight?
LS: It could be, yeah. A good performance, a shut-out win, would put me in-line with another big fight straight away.
IA: Do you consider Josh Warrington your toughest test as a professional so far?
LS: I don’t know. It depends how I box. I can make it an easy fight or a tough fight.
IA: In the face-to-face you took part in conducted by John Rawling, you said you respect him as a fighter, do you respect Josh as a person?
LS: Not really, no. He’s like a cheeky school kid, just mouthing off all the time and to be honest, he ain’t a great ambassador for the sport. When I went to Elland Road to promote the fight, we were in the hospitality suite doing a question and answer session. There was kids and women about and he’s swearing and making a fool of himself. He stuck his fingers up to the away fans, it’s just unprofessional. There’s a lot of people watching, especially youngsters looking up to you and you can’t act like that. I swear in almost every sentence I speak, but not in the public eye I don’t. You’ve got to be a role model and I don’t think he is.
IA: Do you think he believes his own hype and thinks he’s better than he actually is?
LS: I think so, yeah. You can’t blame him, if you’ve got people telling you that you’re this and that – you’re going to believe it.
IA: He’s mentioned his fitness levels to you several times, do you think he’s relying on fitness to defeat you?
LS: If he is, then he’s relying on the wrong thing. Every professional fighter should be 100% fit going into a fight, it’s irrelevant.
IA: It’s been documented that he turned down a fight with you a couple of years ago. What’s the real story behind that?
LS: What I heard is that a fight date was proposed to him and he turned it down – (he) said he couldn’t box that day because he was getting married, then he went and boxed Patrick Hyland on the same date.
IA: What’s your prediction for the Carl Frampton/Nonito Donaire fight on April 21st?
LS: I’d have to go with a Carl Frampton stoppage. He’ll (Donaire) still be dangerous in the fight, the whole way through until the final bell because he’s a big puncher at the lower weights. I don’t think he’s ‘shot’ or anything like that, but he’s not as good as he was.
IA: Is it pretty much set in stone that the winner of that will fight the winner of your fight?
LS: It makes sense, don’t it? It’s just a natural fight, if we (Frampton and I) both win, it sets up a huge fight between us two.
IA: Everyone asks you about being afraid of the hostile environment on May 19th, surely headlining a world title fight as reigning world champion in a football stadium is something to embrace?
LS: I’m not going to be afraid of nothing. Nothing at all.
IA: You must be quite proud, there are so many great fighters who don’t get the chance to do what you’re doing?
LS: That’s it. It’s a big occasion for myself, fighting in a football stadium. Some of the top fighters like the Americans – they don’t get to fight in those types of atmospheres. I’ve been to a lot of fights in America, like the Mayweather fights, they’re only holding 20,000.
IA: What were your thoughts on the Oscar Valdez/Scott Quigg title fight?
LS: I didn’t watch the full fight, but I watched highlights. It looked very competitive from what I’ve seen.
IA: Were you surprised Quigg came in overweight? And what are your thoughts on fighters coming in overweight in big world title fights? I know you’ve been on the opposite side of that before.
LS: It is unprofessional, but knowing what I’ve heard about Quigg, he is like a true professional and he obviously couldn’t make weight. It wasn’t a thing he did on purpose. He’s obviously outgrown the weight or something.
IA: Am I right in saying you’ve sparred with Oscar Valdez in the past?
LS: Yeah, a few times. It was great sparring, I sparred with him for the (Evgeny) Gradovich fight and then after I won the world title I sparred with him. On four different trips I would’ve sparred with him a few times on each occasion.
IA: Finally, what can we expect on May 19th?
LS: Just another great display of boxing. If he wants to have a tear-up and have a fight, I’ll beat him up. If he wants to box, I’ll outbox him. Whatever he wants, he can have it.
General Sale tickets for Selby v Warrington are now available to purchase online @ leedsunited.com and via the Leeds United Ticket Office on 0371 334 1992