Home Boxing News Lee Selby slated to face George Kambosos on Dereck Chisora vs Oleksandr...

Lee Selby slated to face George Kambosos on Dereck Chisora vs Oleksandr Usyk card on Oct 31

Lee Selby vs George Kambosos

Former IBF featherweight champion ‘Lightning’ Lee Selby 28-2 (9) will meet George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos 18-0 (10) in a lightweight world title eliminator on the undercard of the heavyweight clash between Dereck Chisora 32-9 (23) and Oleksandr Usyk 17-0 (13) on October 31.

The winner will be in line for a shot at IBF 135-pound champion Teofimo Lopez 15-0 (12) who face WBA and WBO champion Vasiliy Lomachenko 14-1 (10) in a unification bout in Las Vegas on October 17.

In his last fight in October, Selby scored a 12-round majority decision over former two-weight world champion Ricky Burns.

“I’m delighted that Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing have managed to get this fight on again,” said the 33-year-old Selby.

“I’m one step away from a shot at the IBF lightweight world title and my dream of becoming Wales’ first ever two-weight world champion.

“Kambosos Jr is a hungry young fighter that I know will bring it all, but I’ve had some of my best performances against Australian boxers stopping both Corey McConnell and Joel Brunker in title fights and October 31 will be no different.”

The 27-year-old Kambosos from Sydney, Australia has never been short of confidence and says a sparring session with Selby in Los Angeles a number of years ago has only bolstered his belief that he will win.

“Selby and me sparred years ago, about three or four years ago,” Kambosos told Fightnews in a recent interview. “At Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym. Four rounds. I had him running for his life. Every time I touched him, he was shaking in his boots.

“That was three or four years ago now. I am one hundred times faster and stronger now and more experienced. That is before I did 250 rounds with Manny Pacquiao. I am a different beast now to when I sparred Selby.

“If he thought he had a bit of trouble back then, this is a whole different beast. Faster, more explosive, just a savage.”

Kambosos is coming off a 10-round split decision win over former world champion Mickey Bey at Madison Square Garden in New York last December.

“Mickey Bey was a very experienced fighter,” he said. “He was with Mayweather for fifteen years. He was schooled by the Mayweather Team. Floyd’s second world champion. His credentials are massive. He was the world lightweight champion not the world featherweight champion like Selby.

“To be honest I feel Mickey Bey is better than Selby. We are already on track for a massive win. I am focused on Lee Selby being in front of me and I know I am going to do the business.

“I am going to get rid of him. No disrespect. I respect he is a former world champion and he had a lot of defences at featherweight, but this is a different time and a different era. This is a new generation. It’s my time, not his.”

Kambosos is confident he can face the winner of the Lomachenko vs Lopez bout on home soil.

“I will be the mandatory to the winner of the Lomachenko v Lopez and if you have heard Bob Arum over the past few weeks and a few times last year as well, he wants to bring Kambosos v Lomachenko to Australia,” he said.

“All the unified titles in my weight division. Lomachenko wants to come to Australia. Everything is in a line. Obviously, we have to do our job and Lomachenko has to do his job.

“It’s not an easy ask for Lomachenko as Lopez is a great young fighter but I think Loma will do the business. That’s it. There will be nothing holding it back.

“The Kambosos v Lomachenko will be the biggest fight in Australian boxing history. It will be bigger than Pacquiao v Horn. The biggest fight ever in Australia.

“I haven’t fought in Australia for four years So to come back to fight in Australia after earning my stripes overseas in America and Greece.

“Fighting former world champions and earning it the hard way. To come back and fight the world’s pound-for-pound best for all the belts. That is Australia’s biggest fight. I will shock the world.”

Kambosos sees himself as the bigger man against Selby and says he will finish the fight within the scheduled distance.

“I am bigger, stronger and more explosive than Selby,” he said. “I have been working very hard during this COVID period.

“Physically the way I am punching hard. I am really coming into my prime now. I am 27 years of age. I am confident I will KO Selby inside the distance.”