Lightweights Lee Selby and George Kambosos Jr. do battle on the undercard of Usyk vs. Chisora on Halloween. They share differing memories of past sparring.
Lee Selby and George Kambosos Jr. have a lot riding on their Halloween lightweight matchup. It will be the second time that the two meet in a ring, but they have very different accounts of their previous experience, which happened years ago.
Selby (28-2, 9 KOs) reigned as the IBF featherweight champion for three years before losing a close split decision to Josh Warrington in 2018. At 33 years old, Selby is anxious to win another world title, but Kambosos seems confident that he can easily defeat Selby.
Kambosos (18-0, 10 KOs) sports a flawless record, but he has never fought someone with Selby’s accolades. He defeated veteran former lightweight champion Mickey Bey by split decision, in his last outing in Dec. 2019.
Selby and Kambosos are fighting for a mandatory IBF lightweight title shot on the undercard of the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Derek Chisora main event in London. Who will want it more, the former champion or the hungry prospect?
Selby and Kambosos briefly crossed paths in the past. Several days ago, Kambosos told Sporting News about their short sparring session.
“Every time I touched him, he was shaking in his boots,” Kambosos told Sporting News. “He didn’t want to be there, and it was only four rounds.”
Selby doesn’t remember things the same way. In fact, he barely remembers their abbreviated workout.
During media availability on Tuesday, Oct. 27, FanSided asked Selby and Kambosos about their four-round sparring encounter.
Lee Selby and George Kambosos Jr. both think they have what it takes to beat the other, but the words end on Halloween when they step in the ring
“I sparred brilliant,” Selby told FanSided. “Just sort of outboxed him. Yet, he thinks he had me running around. He quoted he had me running all around the Wild Card and shook me to my boots every time he hit me. If that was the case, I would have manned up and said it. It would have made more of an interesting fight then.”
Selby added, “At that point, it was just like normal sparring, to be honest. I can’t even remember, so it couldn’t have been that good otherwise, I would have remembered it.”
Four rounds is a very sparse amount of sparring. In comparison, Kambosos stated that he has put in about 250 rounds with Manny Pacquiao during their time working together.
When FanSided asked Kambosos for his version of what happened two or three years ago while sparring Selby, he stayed true to his previous narrative.
“There was nothing there,” said Kambosos. “There really wasn’t anything there, anything special. Every time I touched him, he ran even more. That was with 14-16 oz. gloves. When I put those little eights on, it’s going to be a massive, massive difference. He will feel it straight away.”
Selby said some nice things about his opponent and complimented him on his ability but took a passive dig at Kambosos’ résumé.
“You go through his list of opponents, you go on Boxrec and look at who they fought. Who they’ve been knocked out by,” said Selby. “You can see they’re not of a high quality, except for his last opponent Mickey Bey. He was a former world champion, but he was past his best, and he had been inactive for a while. And he was old.”
Kambosos’ was more upfront about his criticism of Selby.
“Them old legs aren’t going to be moving as much as he has in the past,” said Kambosos of Selby. “As soon as I hit him, he’s going to crumble. He can try to do whatever he wants, but it’s not going to work. I have too much in my favor. I’m young. I’m hungry. I’m fresh. It’s going to be a big win. A big statement.”
There’s a competitive tension brewing between Selby and Kambosos, which should make for an exciting matchup between the experienced Selby and the 27-year-old Kambosos, who’s eager to win his first world title. The winner could get a shot at the newly crowned lightweight kingpin Teofimo Lopez. Both men are full of confidence, but Kambosos is much more outspoken.
Kambosos’ last words to FanSided were, “I think I know Lee Selby better than he knows himself.”
Selby vs. Kambosos is turning into a grudge match that you don’t want to miss.
You can watch the bout between Lee Selby and George Kambosos on the undercard of Derek Chisora vs. Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday, Oct. 31, exclusively on DAZN. Fight coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET.