From the Ryōta Murata vs. Emanuele Felice Blandamura & Daigo Higa vs. Cristofer Rosales González RBR thread: How does Cristofer Rosales vs. Andrew Selby II grab everyone? If you weren't aware, Selby (who scraped himself off the canvas from a heavy knockdown in the 1st and beat Rosales by UD, in a Pac vs. JMM I "fair world" scenario) is already his #1 contender, the WBC mandatory after beating Maximo López Flores in a final eliminator last October. He's taking on unbeaten French southpaw Vincent Legrand in a fortnight with the vacant Euro title at stake, which ought to raise his stock even more if he were heading into a world title challenge as the Euro champ. This is honestly best case scenario for Rosales, if you survey the horizon at flyweight. The other champs are: WBA - Dalakian. Risky and not a big financial draw. IBF - vacant. Nietes dropped the belt to move up to super fly chasing paydays. Mthalane vs. Waseem is happening in July but neither is a big moneymaker. WBO - Sho Kimura. Would kind of make sense as Rosales has already established a presence in Japan with this upset victory over Higa, but I'm not sure Kimura is a bigger name or would draw more of a crowd. Higa rematch is probably off the whole table; he's a super fly now. Who else is there? Reveco, Tanaka, Viloria, Thaiyen...after that, you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, and none of those guys would be as handsome a payday as just biting the bullet and returning to Motorpoint Arena (or better yet, have Selby co-feature in the much larger venue in Wales, the gigantic Principality Stadium, piggybacking on the next Anthony Joshua card) even knowing that it will be a tacit forfeiture of his championship, as Selby kind of has Rosales' number. He isn't going to do better in this current division, in terms of cashing out (and I don't think Rosales is a strong enough champ to bank on a long reign to collect interest on smaller-payday defenses), with the landscape what it currently is.
I've not seen a ton of Andrew in the pros. When he was a star amateur people were projecting he'd be twice as good as elder brother Lee. So far I wouldn't say he was a full-on Matthew Hatton, but he certainly hasn't become the breakout star of the family, either. He's until proven otherwise (and taking a cleaner victory over Rosales in a rematch to snatch his world title - after first busting Legrand's cherry to become Euro champ - would be a major step in that direction) on the Hughie Fury/Tervel Pulev/Daiki Kameda/Rosales himself tier of siblings & cousins. Good, fine, but not threatening in a serious way to overshadow their more famous kinsmen.
I didn't see the fight, but based off the scorecard he won quite clearly. So I would go with Selby again. Selby has been a little disappointing though. I had really big expectations for him. He shows flashes of greatness but sometimes he just looks like he hasn't adapted to the pro system. Lee seems a lot more consistent.
Trust me those score cards were dodgy, Rosales arguably won that fight and had Selby on the back foot scrambling around for the majority of the fight.
Would be an interesting rematch then. Selby is old for a flyweight. He should fight for a world title asap. Selby's style will not age well.
He was the mandatory for Higa when he beat Rosales but I personally think he ducked Higa because he didn’t take his shot and there was no talk about him going over to Japan to fight him. I think in a neutral venue, Rosales will beat him this time round.
I'll watch the fight. Selby does some stupid **** in the ring sometimes. Can't tell if he gets unfocused or just over emotional.
