‘I TRIED TO DROWN WITH DRUGS AND
From sleeping on park benches to champion of the world
A T the age of 18, there was every chance the world would never know the name Lee Selby. This teenager, who’d grown up on the wrong side of the tracks in the Colcot and Buttrills areas of Barry, took little interest in school and spent a lot of his time “up to no good”.
He’d fallen into an alcohol and drug culture that not only threatened his health, but also endangered any prospects he had of making a career out of his talents in the boxing ring.
Then, not long after he’d turned professional, Selby plunged to an all-time low and he was even found sleeping on park benches following the sudden passing of his older brother in 2008.
Michael Selby had been working as a labourer in Western-superMare when he fell into the River Rhyne and drowned.
“We had some bad times as you can imagine – he was my older brother – we were fighting and calling each other all sorts,” recalled Selby.
“There were times when we were really close and there were times when we hated each other.
“Around about the age of 18, the rest of my friends were all into drinking, drugs and that sort of thing. Then when my older brother passed away I went right downhill. Very bad. I was down-and-out.
“There were times when I was being found asleep on park benches. You wouldn’t believe it.
“I tried to drown out my emotions with drugs and alcohol and, at the time, it worked. It was heartbreaking. He was only a kid.”
He added: “I reached a point in my life where it was make or break and luckily I decided to choose the right path.
“I got to a stage where I thought that enough was enough. I was in a bad way but I managed to turn it around.” He puts it mildly. Fast forward a decade and Selby is IBF featherweight world champion, though the passing of his brother – whose nickname “Slinky” can be found on Selby’s trunks on fight night and tattooed on his arm – still lingers.
“I’m 30 now, but it’s hard to look back and imagine him being younger than me because he was only a kid then and I’m now a fully- grown man.
“He’ll always be like my older brother. I wonder, in another 10 or 20 years’ time, whether or not he’ll still feel like my older brother or will I see him as a kid? I don’t know, it’s strange.”
When asked if he was destined to become a boxer, Selby gives a nod of agreement.
His father is a boxing fanatic and Selby speculates that the sport was always on the television growing up because Lee Snr. was desperate for his sons to take an interest.
Boxing gloves were waiting under the tree on Christmas Day and the living room would become the ring as the brothers “hit lumps out of each other” with dad refereeing proceedings.
The boys would run to school with their father cycling alongside and then run home before going straight to the boxing gym as soon as they were old enough.
His mother, Frankie, was also part of the team, driving her boys up to Rhoose Amateur Boxing club and waiting outside as they were put through their paces.
Given that he’s currently Wales’ only world champion – though his brother Andrew is now a mandatory for the WBC flyweight title – it would be easy to assume that Lee was the most talented of the three but that wasn’t the case.
“As kids, me and Andrew were competitive. When we were closer in weights, the sparring would get competitive. He was very good as a schoolboy and as a youth and he used to beat me up until I started growing.
“I shot up a little bit and when that happened I was bigger and stronger, and I fought back. Now he’s turned professional and we’re training in the same gym, which is nice. When we’re sparring, because I’ve done it with him for so long, I know him inside out. I know how to pressure him and how to tire him out – he can’t get away with anything when he’s in with me.”
Family has always been important to Selby and he cherishes that sense of belonging.
He’s never moved away from Barry and during this interview he’s stopped multiple times as passers-by say hello. These are his people.
And now he has a growing family of his own. Selby has two children with his partner Meggie, Lucia-Lee is three and Minnie will turn two next month.
He admits that his outlook on boxing has changed now that he has people depending on him.
“Before I had kids I would have been more than happy to die in the ring as opposed to lose,” he said.
“Now it’s changed big time. I’d rather lose. I’ve got people depending on me.
“It sounds silly but when I was coming up, I was just fighting for myself and if I’d died, then so be it. I’d rather that than lose – that was my attitude. But