Eddie Hearn Shakes His Head at Lee Selby's Inactivity

By Edward Chaykovsky

Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport feels his fighter, IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby, is far too inactive and has lost his momentum.

Selby captured the IBF crown last May when he unseated Evgeny Gradovich in an dominant performance at the O2 Arena in London.

After that, he signed on with adviser Al Haymon and began fighting under the Premier Boxing Champions banner. He returned in October, in Arizona, and won a twelve round decision over former champion Fernando Montiel.

Since the Montiel fight, Selby has only fought once - back in April - when he retained his title over mandatory challenger Eric Hunter at the O2 Arena as part of the Anthony Joshua-Charles Martin undercard.

Hearn has one fight remaining with Selby and there is no telling on whether the boxer will re-ink with the Matchroom stable or go in another direction. Another world champion of Hearn's IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale, is also signed with Haymon's PBC. He took has a fight remaining on his Matchroom contract.

"Lee Selby went to make his move in America and it has not worked out at all," Hearn told BBC Radio Wales Sport. "I feel he has lost a lot of momentum. He's boxed twice in 17 months when he should have boxed five times."

"After he won the world title against [Evgeny] Gradovich, he should have been boxing back in Wales with that hero's welcome. We went to Barry on an open-top bus and the reception was incredible. As a promoter, it just screamed out 'home defence'. He's not got a fight scheduled at the moment. It's not really my job to schedule that unfortunately but we want to see Lee box in Wales. He should be boxing every three or four months in Wales."