In a fight that was supposed to happen in January, Welshman Lee Selby (24-1, 9 KOs) is apparently still going to defend his IBF World Featherweight title against Jonathan Victor Barros (44-4-1, 22 KOs). The fight was supposed to be on the Santa Cruz/Frampton II undercard, but it was canceled on the eve of the show when test results for Barros came back positive for hepatitis. Reportedly Barros submitted lab work performed in Argentina showing that he is now clear of the disease.
The purse bid winner was TGB Promotions, an outfit that at times acts as a Al Haymon and PBC shadow promoter. Accordingly, I would expect this to land on a PBC card somewhere in the United States despite neither fighter being known here. That was he plan for the first fight too, but then it made a lot more sense when it was on a major undercard featuring Carl Frampton. I do not mean to say that this fight couldn’t possibly be taken abroad. There is nothing preventing it except that PBC has just never traveled before. Also, I would imagine any state that hosts this fight would be highly interested in retesting Barros. This is a pretty strange situation all around.
Selby won the IBF title in 2015 from Evgeny Gradovich. He has defended it twice, most prominently against a faded, undersized, but somewhat resurgent former elite flyweight Fernando Montiel. After the initial Barros fight cancellation, Selby took a non-title, might as well use the camp I just had sort of fight on the Bellew/Haye undercard. There he scored a rare stoppage for himself over an outclassed Spanish club fighter in Andoni Gago.
You’ll see Barros mentioned as a previous title holder himself, but it was one of those bogus WBA belts when there was a “Super” World Champion above him. He is not a true former titlist. He lost his first shot to Yuriorkis Gamboa in spring of 2010, but by the end of the same year he was handed the imaginary belt on a silver platter against undeserving Irving Berry of Panama. In 2011 he won what was considered a controversial enough decision to Celestino Caballero for an immediate rematch to be ordered, which he lost four months later. He lost the next two times he stepped up against Juan Carlos Salgado in his second real title opportunity, then to Mikey Garcia in an eighth round stoppage. Since 2013 he is 7-0 against no world level opposition and suddenly he is again back in a title fight. Go boxing.
