Lee Selby doubts Leo Santa Cruz's claim he'd fight in UK
Tuesday 19 July 2016 08:01, UK
Lee Selby lies in wait for the winner of Leo Santa Cruz v Carl Frampton but doubts whether the Mexican would come to Britain.
IBF world featherweight champion Selby (23-1-KO8) has not fought since early April but with Santa Cruz (32-0-1-KO18) putting his WBA 'Super' crown on the line against Frampton (22-0-KO14) on July 30, he is content to play a waiting game for the winner.
Santa Cruz claims he is open to fighting Selby in the UK if he overcomes Frampton but the Welshman is not convinced.
Selby told Sky Sports: "It's the fight I want. I just want the winner between the pair of them and if Frampton wins then it'll be him I want to face.
"I doubt Santa Cruz would come to Britain. He's saying it but I wouldn't have thought so. I would rather have it here but I just can't see him travelling for the fight. His fans are all over in America.
"I probably won't fight again before I hopefully fight the winner of that. I'll probably only fight again once this year. I just want to be in the big fights and that's the biggest fight out there at the moment so I'd rather wait for that."
Selby claims Vasyl Lomachenko - who recently stepped up to lift the WBO super-featherweight belt having defended the same organisation's title three times at the lower weight - and WBC champion Gary Russell Jr are not necessarily big draws in the UK despite their standing within the game.
"I think Lomachenko might fight between the weights now," he said. "I just want the winner of Santa Cruz v Frampton because they are bigger names. Nobody on the street knows who Lomachenko is but he's probably one of the best boxers in the world, pound-for-pound.
"Nobody coming through really excites me. Only the champions. Russell Jr, obviously. If you ask people outside of boxing, again, people don't know who he is even though he's one of the best in the sport and is exciting to watch.
"There's Oscar Valdez, who's going to fight for the title Lomachenko vacated - I've sparred with him and he's a good fighter."
Selby won his world title on a momentous night in May 2015 - stopping Evgeny Gradovich in the eighth round at The O2. He has since defended it twice against Fernando Montiel and Eric Hunter.
