Josh Warrington and his supporters tried their best to get under Lee Selby’s skin during the final press conference but the IBF World featherweight champion did not bite despite countless verbal jabs by Warrington and the crowd.
“It is what it is. It’s just a press conference. His fans got involved as well. It is what it is,” said the champion calmly after the press conference exclusively to Boxing Social.
Unfortunately for Shelby, Tuesday’s press conference was only the tip of the iceberg as he will walk in front of a hostile Elland Road Stadium on Saturday night to defend his IBF title against mandatory challenger Warrington. However, Selby is no stranger to feisty away performances. For instance, he famously knocked out Stephen Smith in Liverpool and outpointed Martin Lindsay in Belfast.
“When you look back at it..It is evident it brings the best out of me that hostile crowd, people booing me,” explained Selby.
Despite the big stadium and the hype, Selby doesn’t rank his upcoming bout against Warrington up there with the other potential big name fights that may come the Welshman’s way should he retain.
“I want to fight the best. I ain’t scared of losing. I want to fight the big names. It [Warrington fight] is a big fight in its own way but obviously, you got the likes of Carl Frampton, Leo Santa Cruz, them type of fighters. They are bigger ones,” told Selby.
The calm and collective champion has not done anything different in terms of preparation for Warrington. Once fight night arrives, Selby will adapt and perform.
“I haven’t done nothing different than the usual thing. We’ve been out to America, my tenth trip out there training for a fight. So everything is the same. I don’t like training for specific fighters. I train myself to keep myself right. What happens on the night I try to adapt. I don’t go in there with gameplans I just go knowing that I’ve put the work in and I adapt on the night.”