HOSTILE GROUND
Selby-warrington has been a long time in the making and is unlikely to disappoint, writes Elliot Worsell
World champ Lee Selby travels to Leeds to face local hero Josh Warrington
SOME fights just make perfect sense. The right fighters with the right styles in the right location at the right time, this Saturday’s (May 19) IBF featherweight title clash between Lee
Selby and Josh Warrington, at Leeds United’s Elland Road, is one such fight. It’s a fight Lee Selby needs, just as it’s a fight Josh Warrington needs. It’s a fight Carl Frampton needs, for it may decide his next opponent, and it’s a fight the rest of us need, too, if only to discover Selby and Warrington’s true potential in the ninestone division.
However, while the fight has implications on the world stage, it’s at home where it really matters and where it really counts. That’s why it’s taking place at Elland Road, fortress of Warrington and his army of Leeds fans, and that’s why the two of them, Warrington and Selby, have been inextricably linked for some time now.
For years it has been a natural fight to make. The best option for both, it is intriguing on the basis they are both featherweights from Great Britain, a dynamic strengthened by the fact one of them, Selby, is a world titlist, and also because the two differ so much in terms of style and overall approach.
In simplest terms, the style breakdown is as follows: Selby is the boxer, Warrington is the brawler. But it’s in the intricacies of these styles where the fight will be won and lost. Can Selby, for instance, box his way to victory and avoid the temptation to brawl with a man who loves nothing more than a brawl? If not, if it becomes a close-quarter battle, is Selby a better brawler than Warrington is a boxer? That could be just as important. Similarly, can Warrington impose his strength and fitness to drag Selby away from his game plan? Can he display some cuteness his harshest critics say he lacks?
The brilliant thing about this fight is it should provide us with all the answers. And these answers won’t just reveal the winner of Saturday’s fight, they will also tell us a lot about the futures of the two men involved. Together, they will discover whether or not they are good enough to thrive in a tough, competitive division, and, by the end of it, everybody else should know whether either of them can provide a realistic test for Frampton, reportedly waiting in the wings.
They both need the fight, but Selby perhaps needs it more on account of the fact Warrington, regardless of the opposition, still has a fan base that will follow him all around the country.
Selby, in contrast, has never had this comfort, this support. A lone wolf from day one, the gifted Welshman had to cut his teeth on the small hall circuit, losing a fight along the way (to Samir Mouneimne in 2009), and has had little handed to him during the course of a 10-year pro career. (Even as world champion Selby has defended his IBF title on undercards and in Glendale, Arizona of all places.)
Not a talker, not a ticket-seller, he has got by on talent and talent alone. That’s commendable, no doubt, but it also leaves a fighter susceptible to fading from public view, and it could be argued this has happened with Selby to some extent. After all, since winning his current title with a virtuoso display against thenunbeaten Evgeny Gradovich in 2015, the 31-year-old from Barry has done little to increase his stock, let alone his profile, in the intervening years.
There have been fights, and there have been title defences (four of them), but Selby hasn’t taken off the way a man of his talents should be taking off. Skillwise, he’s as good as this country has to offer. There’s a steeliness to him, too, that suggests he can step up in class and hang with the very best in his division. But still we wait. Still we wait for the kind of fight with the kind of profile to do his skills justice. Still we wait for the kind of opponent to confirm a lot of things we suspect.
In Warrington, there’s every chance Selby, 26-1 (9), has found that opponent. Certainly, with BT Sport televising, and a reported 20,000 tickets sold at Elland Road, the two of them have the platform to help catapult their names and get some shine they have otherwise lacked. It’s a big fight in a big stadium, the kind of event Selby – and Warrington for that matter – has yet to really experience. Better than that, there’s a sense Warrington, in terms of style, could be just what Selby is looking for; the bull to his matador; the kind of opponent to accentuate everything he does well.
Yet this could be doing Warrington, 26-0 (6), a disservice. He’s fit, game and hard-nosed, that much is undeniable, but there’s also more to his game than that, as was evident in last year’s wins against Dennis Ceylan and Kiko Martinez. Hands up, chin down, the 27-year-old flourishes when he’s marauding forward and throwing both hands at a good pace, yet he’s technically sound enough to box and move when he has to. He did some of this against Martinez, the Spanish aggressor who gave Frampton a couple of hard battles, and did some of it against Ceylan, too. Both times he showed he can get behind his jab and think rather than simply fight.
Even so, one would imagine he’ll have to revert to type and use his physicality if he’s to get the better of Selby this weekend. It’s in that kind of fight, up close and personal, that Warrington might be able to capitalise on Selby’s sometimes leaky defence and lapses in concentration. It’s in that sort of territory where Warrington, roared on by thousands of rabid fans, might be able to stifle and suffocate and eventually overwhelm a champion accustomed to boxing in relative silence.
With just six knockouts from his 26 wins, it’s unlikely Warrington can cruise and look for one decisive, fight-ending shot. Instead, he’ll have to graft for his victory, just as he’s always done. Selby, too, isn’t a man typically associated with one-punch finishes (just the nine inside distance wins on his 27-bout record prove this).
The smart money, therefore, is on this one going long. Should it do so, it might also be punishing. It might reflect the passion and the energy of the crowd and its intensity might even be cranked up a notch as a result of this noise, this mayhem.
That will suit Warrington. It will drive him on, increase his punch output, and encourage him to take chances. It will also, you sense, suit Selby, the one with the more polished skills, the one who has shown more dimensions and subtlety to his game. It will suit him because the more noise that’s generated and the more Warrington presses the action, the more opportunity there will be to open up and land punches, dazzle as he has done in the past, and remind us all of why we were so excited about his rise to IBF champion three years ago. Ultimately, so long as a string of lowkey defences haven’t quelled his motivation, Selby’s class should ensure he retains his belt over 12 frenetic rounds. There’s a step up for
Nicola Adams this Saturday, both in terms of rounds and opponent. The Leeds native, a twotime Olympic champion, will box Soledad del Valle Frias, a three-time world title challenger, over a scheduled 10 rounds.
More than a step up, it’s a step in the right direction and would indicate Adams isn’t too far off challenging for titles, be it world or otherwise. Katie Taylor has won a couple of world titles. Natasha Jonas and Chantelle Cameron have won a couple of fringe belts. We’re all waiting on Adams [pictured over page, top].
As for del Valle Frias, 13-11-4 (4),