Lee Selby, of Wales, produced a boxing masterclass to retain his IBF featherweight title, beating Argentina’s Jonathan Barros at Wembley Arena last night. He floored his opponent with a stunning left hook in the final round and although Barros climbed back to his feet, the decision was never in doubt. All three judges gave him the fight, scoring it 117-110, 117-110, 118-108.
It was an emotional night for Selby, whose mother died recently. “In the build-up I told my team not to mention it. I knew that I had to go to work,” Selby said.
Before the contest, Selby had said that we wants to fight Carl Frampton, who was at ringside, or Leo Santa Cruz.
He needed a convincing third title defence and took the fight to Barros from the opening bell, using his reach advantage to rock Barros in the first round with a powerful right hook. The pair had been due to meet in January and it was clear that Selby was determined to make up for lost time, but in his desire for a quick finish he left himself open to counter punches, and in round two Barros gave as he took.
Selby soon got the message and began to dominate the middle of the ring, keeping his man at distance. Barros was becoming increasingly frustrated at his inability to land a punch on Selby.
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Barros soaked up a series of powerful right hands in the fourth round but had clearly lost every round. In the fifth round the pair clashed heads and Selby emerged with a cut above his right eye. To his credit, he stuck to his game plan, but now the fight had taken on a different complexion.
The British fighter knew that he could not afford to trade blows with Barros and he tried to keep control of the contest from the middle of the ring, but Barros landed a couple of left hooks on Selby’s eye in the sixth round, and the cut opened once again.
In round seven both men were warned for leading with their foreheads, and Barros pinched his first round of the contest. Back came Selby in the eighth, catching his opponent with a series of left-right combinations.
With the champion ahead on points, Barros made a lively start to the ninth round and caught Selby with two terrific right hooks but the Welshman stood firm. Barros knew that he had to knock his man out if he was going to win and he became ragged in the 10th round as he looked for the punch that would end the fight. Every time he missed, Selby caught him with a jab or a hook to the body.
Selby gave Barros a boxing lesson in the penultimate round, hitting him at will. He only had to survive the 12th round and stunned Barros when he floored him with a left hook with 60 seconds left. It went to the judges’ scorecards, but the decision was a formality.
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In the main event of the evening, Chris Eubank Jr made the first successful defence of his IBO super-middleweight title by comfortably outpointing Armenian Arthur Abraham by an unanimous decision 118-110, 118-110 and 120-108.
Eubank won almost every round against his 37-year-old opponent but despite neat work, especially when dealing out body shots, the Briton couldn’t trouble his opponent enough to score a knockout blow.
The closest Abraham came to hurting Eubank was in the 11th round as the German-based fighter dealt a crushing left hook, prompting Eubank into a flurry of aggression that pinned Abraham back.
The fight became scrappier towards the end but Eubank remained in cruise control to move to 25-1 in his six-year professional career. Eubank enters the World Boxing Super Series later this year.