IBF champion Lee Selby plans on doing it the hard way
Wednesday 16 September 2015 23:38, UK
IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby wants to be a worldwide star and plans on doing it the hard way.
Selby will make his American debut next month when he makes the first defence of the title he won from Evgeny Gradovich in May - taking on experienced Mexican Fernando Montiel in Arizona.
Montiel, who has won world titles at flyweight, super-flyweight and bantamweight, has won 54 fights, 39 by knockout and lost just four times since making his debut in 1996.
"I'm not going to be one of those champions you see picking out nice easy defences," vowed Selby.
"I'm going to travel to America and fight an established former three-weight champion in Fernando Montiel.
"He's had 60 fights, he's knocked out twice the amount of people that I've had fights, so I'm up against it, but it's something I'm really looking forward to.
"I want to be a true champion; you won't see me staying with my home comforts, defending my title against voluntary defences, easy defences.
"I want to fight the best and I want to be the best featherweight in the world."
Selby said he also plans to surpass fellow Welshman Joe Calzaghe by conquering America.
Calzaghe won each of his 46 fights and reigned as world champion for more than 10 years but fought in the United States for the first time in only the final year of his career, beating Bernard Hopkins and then Roy Jones Jnr.
"I've spoken to Joe Calzaghe and he has said that he wished he went to America a lot sooner than he did, he only boxed his last couple of fights out there," Selby said.
"It's something that he wished he'd done but now I am doing it and hopefully I will be the one who benefits by going over there early in my career.
"I will be boxing more in America now; I'll probably have three fights a year. Hopefully one of those will be back here in the UK.
"I want to be a worldwide star and to achieve that you have to fight over in America. There's other world champions at my weight: Leo Santa Cruz, Jesus Cuellar... They are the type of fights I want, the big fights.
"[Calzaghe] don't even look like a fighter, his face doesn't look like a boxer, there's few marks. If I can have a career half as successful as Joe's I will be very happy."
Selby insists winning the world title has not changed him and says with another child on the way, there is an added incentive.
"I've got a young daughter and another one on the way, so I've got to provide for my family as well now," said Selby.
"I'm still in the gym working hard, as hard as I've ever done, if not working harder. I noticed I'm getting recognised a lot more outside of boxing.
"I want to be a worldwide star. In the UK, if you ask someone who knows about boxing who Lee Selby is, they will know who I am.
"I want that on the world stage and I want to fight the best boxers, fighters like Leo Santa Cruz - and I think I've got the style to beat most of them."
