Frampton-Santa Cruz II: Lee Selby To Defend IBF Belt vs. Barros

By Elliot Foster

Lee Selby will defend his world title next month.

The Welshman, 29, will make a mandatory defence of the IBF featherweight crown against Jonathan Victor Barros.

Selby will face Barros on January 28 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, as part of the supporting cast to Carl Frampton’s return fixture against Leo Santa Cruz for the Super WBA featherweight bauble.

Sky Sports will air the action in the UK, while Showtime have secured the Stateside rights to a tripleheader which also includes Dejan Zlaticanin’s WBC lightweight title defence against Mikey Garcia.

Barros, 32, of Argentina, has a ring record of 41-4-1 with 22 KOs and got into the mandatory position to face once-defeated Selby with a string of seven victories.

Barry stylist Selby, whose ring record is 23-1 (8 KOs), was last in action in April when he outpointed Eric Hunter at the O2 Arena in London, exclusively live on Sky Sports Box Office, to retain the aforementioned title he won against Evgeny Gradovich in May, 2015 and kept hold of successfully against Fernando Montiel in Glendale, Arizona in October of that year.

As previously reported by Boxing Scene, the three world title fights will be flanked by an appearance on the card for Carl Frampton’s stablemate Josh Taylor.

It has since been confirmed that David Benavidez, Ivan Redkach, Luis Gerardo Perez, Antonio Santa Cruz and Jorge Lara will also see action on the bill.