Burns vs Selby results: Lee Selby takes majority decision over Ricky Burns

Former 126-pound titleholder Lee Selby made it 2-0 since his move up to 135 pounds, scraping past three-division titleholder Ricky Burns via majority decision today in London.

Scores were 115-115, 116-112, and 116-113 from the official judges. Bad Left Hook had a pair of cards for Selby, 115-113 on each.

Selby (28-2, 9 KO) hasn’t had it easy moving up in weight, beating Omar Douglas in February and now a determined veteran in Burns (43-8-1, 16 KO).

Selby was sharper at the start, but Burns as always made a fight of it over the longer haul. After the fifth round, where Selby had landed a shot right at the bell, Burns loaded up and landed a right hand well after the bell had rang, which could easily have resulted in a point deduction, but the referee chose not to go that far. It was a blatant foul and perhaps a tactic by Burns to get Selby mad enough to make mistakes.

Selby was instantly irate, understandably, but didn’t let it take over once the next rounded started, and stayed pretty much in the same mode. Both fighters did some good body work, it was scrappy and at times ugly (a lot of rabbit punches got in on both sides), and there wasn’t a lot between them in enough rounds that this was debatable in the end.

“I had to work quite hard, I had to dig in at times. I could’ve made it a lot easier, but we’re both Celtic warriors,” Selby said after the fight.

Asked about staying at lightweight or perhaps moving down to 130, a division he skipped over, Selby remarked, “I could possibly go down to super feather, but I feel more comfortable at lightweight. It’s still a task to get my big frame down to lightweight. I was bigger than Ricky Burns in there.”

We’ll have to see if the 32-year-old Selby is any real threat to the top dogs at lightweight, but so far it doesn’t seem that will be the case. As for the 36-year-old Burns, there’s a remarkable amount left in his tank at this level, even if he’s probably done as a serious contender at world level in any weight class.

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