By Barry Holbrook: Lee Selby ended his 14-year career with a retirement statement on Tuesday, making it clear the former IBF featherweight champion is done with boxing.
Now 35, Selby suffered a disappointing fifth-round knockout loss to Argentinian slugger Gustavo Daniel Lemos (28-0, 18 KOs) last month on March 26th in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The young 26-year-old Lemos dropped Selby three times, once in the fourth and two more times in the fifth round before the contest was halted.
There was no shame in Selby losing to a young lion like Lemos, but it still had to be a bitter pill to swallow given the great success the ‘Lightning’ Lee had enjoyed during the zenith of his career seven years ago.
Although Lemos is the type of fighter that likely would have worn down and stopped Selby earlier in his career, he still chose to hang up his gloves.
In 2015, the crafty Wales native Selby defeated IBF 126-lb champion Evgeny Gradovich (23-2-1, 9 KOs) by an eight-round technical decision to become a world champion at 28.
From there, Selby went on a nice run, successfully defending his IBF featherweight title four times over the next three years before ultimately losing the strap to Josh Warrington by a 12 round split decision in May 2018 in Leeds, UK.
The fight was close enough to where Selby might have won had the contest been staged in a neutral venue rather than in front of a huge crowd of pro-Warrington fans in Leeds.
However, Selby did not look good in his next two contests, laboring to a pair of 12 round decisions against Omar Douglas and Ricky Burns in fights that could have easily gone the other way.
Perhaps where reality finally set in for Selby was when he was beaten by then little-known Australian George Kambosos Jr by a 12 round split decision in October 2020.
There were more than a few boxing fans that believed that Selby deserved the victory in that fight, but the high energy from Kambosos impressed the judges enough for him to get the nod.
The young upstart Kambosos had too much speed and firepower for Selby, whose wheels weren’t fast enough to allow him to elude the attacks from the Australian.
“After 27 years as an amateur and professional boxer, I know the time is right for me to hang up the gloves,” Lee Selby said in his retirement statement.
“I’m proud the team I started with was the same team I ended my career with, and I am grateful for the 14-year pro journey we shared together through all the highs and lows.
“I am proud to be the 12th Welshman to win a world title and my name will now forever sit in the record books alongside those great fighters. When I look back on my career, I have realized everything I set out to achieve.
“I exit the ring with no regrets, happy, healthy, and with my family financially secure. Boxing has been my life and I am sure my involvement in the sport will continue in the years to come as I look to set new goals.”
If only Selby’s prime had occurred in this era, he would be in the mix for well-paying fights against unified champion Kambosos Jr, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Vasyl Lomachenko, and Ryan Garcia.
Back in Selby’s day, the lightweight division wasn’t as thriving as it is today and there wasn’t the big money available for the top-rung talent.
Aside from Selby’s title-winning victory over Gradovich in 2015, these were some of the best wins of his 14-year career:
- Ricky Burns
- Eduardo Ramirez
- Eric Hunter
- Jonathan Victor Barros
- Fernando Montiel
- Joel Brunker
- Rendall Munroe
- Ryan Walsh
- Romulo Koasicha
- Stephen Smith
- Viorel Simion
