SELBY NOW A FREE MAN

MONDAY March 27, 2017

LEE SELBY is now a free agent after his contract with Matchroom Sports expires, and the IBF featherweight boss is exploring his options - including a showdown with Carl Frampton.

“It gives us a lot of freedom, which is good,” Selby’s manager, Jamie Sanigar tells BN. “We can work with whoever we want, in the UK we’re seeing some new players on the scene in the form of [broadcasters] ITV and BT Sport. There are options in America as well. Also, there’s no reason we can’t work with Eddie [Hearn] again in the future, it wasn’t an acrimonious split or anything like that.”

He was scheduled to make a mandatory defence of his belt against Johnny Barros in January, but a failed medical exam from the challenger scuppered the fight. The IBF are still deciding what happens next, but word on the street is that a showdown with Frampton is close to being signed. Sanigar, though, is not commital:

“Lee wants to be in a big, big fight. We speak with Carl’s team [Cyclone Promotions] regularly, we’re working with them on an upcoming show so we’re speaking quite a lot at the moment. The Frampton fight’s a possibility, it’s whether Carl wants the fight really.

“It’s a real possibility though.”