Lee Selby to make mandatory defense against Eric Hunter on April 9th

Lee Selby (22-1, 8 KOs) is slated to defend his IBF featherweight title for the second time on April 9th when he takes on mandatory challenger Eric Hunter. The two will face one another at the O2 Arena in London on the undercard of Charles Martin vs. Anthony Joshua.

Selby, 29, won his world title by beating Evgeny Gradovich in a technical decision last May after a cut over Gradovich's right eye (caused by an accidental headbutt) forced the fight to be stopped in the eighth round. Several months later, Selby would make the first successful title defense against Fernando Montiel. Now it's on to the next one...

"I can't wait," Selby said. "I've always wanted to box on April 9 and I've been working towards that and my head's been on it, so now it's confirmed. It's great news.

"Hunter looks decent and it will be a good fight, but I am more than ready for this one. It's always nice to fight in front of your home fans, so it will be great to have my second defense in front of my own people."

Hunter (21-3, 11 KOs), fighting out of Philadelphia, will be getting his first shot on the big stage in this one, in a world title bout nonetheless. He's most recently coming off a KO  win over Antonio Escalante, who he dropped three times in the opening round last May.

And in another addition to the Martin-Joshua card, middleweight Matthew Macklin (34-6, 22 KOs) will be taking on Brian Rose (28-3-1, 8 KOs) in an all-England affair. Macklin has gone 5-1 since getting stopped by Gennady Golovkin in June 2013, with his one loss coming by way of KO to Jorge Sebastian Heiland. Since then he's reeled off three straight wins, albeit against lesser opposition.

Brian Rose is 3-2 in his last five fights, being stopped by Demetrius Andrade and Carson Jones, only to then beat Jones in a rematch last August. His last fight was a points win over a 16-36-1 opponent in Ruslans Pojonisevs which took place last November.