IBF World featherweight champion Lee Selby (26-1, 9 KOs) retained his title tonight with a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision over the much younger 24-year-old Eduardo Ramirez (20-1-3, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London, England.
The final scores were 118-110, 119-109 and 115-112. Boxing 247 had Selby winning 9 rounds to 3. Ramirez fought well in rounds 3, 9 and 11.
With the win, the 30-year-old Selby will face #1 IBF Josh Warrington next.
Selby looked good at times in each round, but he was never able to sustain that against Ramirez. Selby was clearly bothered by the youth, energy and more importantly the pressure that Ramirez was putting on him. Even when Selby was doing well, Ramirez would catch him with a left hook or a right hand that would snap his head back violently. Ramirez was able to throw looping shots from odd angles, and I don’t think Selby ever quite got used to that. Oftentimes Ramirez would bend forward at the waist like he was ducking, and he would then throw a strange looking looping shot that would catch Selby cleanly. Selby never did adjust to those shots to stop them from landing.
“It’s a massive fight,” said Selby about his fight with Warrington. “Josh Warrington has earned the mandatory position, so to get there he has to be a good fighter,” Selby said after the fight. “We’ve sort of exchanged words in the past but a fight between Josh and I would be massive and fantastic for British boxing.”
Ramirez weighed 2 ½ pounds over the 126 lb. featherweight weigh-in limit last Friday in coming in at 128 ½ pounds, so he couldn’t fight for the IBF title tonight. It was just as well, as he didn’t win anyway. Selby won a clear decision, but it wasn’t what I would call an easy victory for him. The younger 24-year-old Ramirez put plenty of heat on the 30-year-old Selby, and you could tell he was the younger guy. He had energy that Selby didn’t possess. Ramirez didn’t have Selby’s talent though, but his youth made the fight tougher than it should have been. What we saw tonight is Selby is staring to get older, and it won’t be much longer before the younger lions eventually beat him and take his title if it doesn’t happen next year when he faces Carl Frampton. Josh Warrington is next for Selby, but he’s not equipped to beat him.
After the fight, #1 IBF Josh Warrington (26-0, 6 KOs) was quick to let everyone know that he can’t wait for his title shot against Selby in his next fight. Unfortunately, I don’t see the 27-year-old Warrington doing any better than what we saw from Ramirez tonight. In fact, Warrington might even do worst, considering he doesn’t hit as hard as the 24-year-old Ramirez. Neither of those guys are big punchers, but I rate Ramirez as having better power and a style that worked better against Selby than what we’ll see from Warrington in early 2018.