Lee Selby knows his place in the pantheon of great Welsh boxers and now he wants to make history.

The former IBF featherweight champion first needs to overcome the unbeaten George Kambosos in an IBF lightweight world title eliminator at London’s Wembley Arena on Saturday, 31 October.

“I want to make history, not just for myself, but for Welsh boxing,” he said.

The tantalising prize for Selby, Wales’ 12th and most recent world champion, should he beat Kambosos, is not just a world title opportunity, but arguably the world title opportunity in boxing at the moment.

Outside of the heavyweight division, perhaps no boxer is currently grabbing more headlines than Teofimo Lopez, who beat Vasyl Lomachenko by a unanimous points decision in Las Vegas to become the undisputed world lightweight champion.

Lopez will loom on the horizon for the winner of this contest, who would be the mandatory challenger to his IBF title.

History beckons

Selby is fully aware that his credentials as a world-level fighter were scrutinised and doubted after his world title defeat by Josh Warrington at Elland Road in May 2018.

However, Selby later revealed the huge effort he was making to get down to featherweight, telling BBC Sport Wales he would “chew but not swallow food to make weight,” and says he could not make featherweight now “for all the money in the world.”

“The weigh-in days I felt terrible. I could’ve been seriously hurt,” he said at the time, vowing to retire from the sport if he could not make an impact at lightweight.

Selby, 33, has won both his contests since then impressively, with victories over Omar Douglas and Scottish great Ricky Burns and will now take on the undefeated Australian, Kambosos.

“It would mean the world to me to be a two-weight world champion,” Selby said.

“I’m only the 12th Welsh world champion and boxing has been going on a long time.

“Being Wales’ first two-weight world champion would be something money can’t buy.

“I feel I’ve grown into being a proper lightweight now. In the early part of my career I was knocking people out and that power is there now.”

The 27-year old Kambosos has vowed to make Selby retire and says he hurt the Barry boxer in sparring a couple of years ago, but Selby says he is too focused on the prize to worry about background noise.

“He’s had a lot to say but I take that in my stride, he can say what he wants. I don’t understand the trash talk, we don’t have any tickets to sell,” he said.

“I liked boxing when it was a gentleman’s sport, we are going to fight on Saturday and we will see then who is the better fighter.

“My record is a lot better than his in terms of the calibre of opponent. He’s also lied about what happened between us in sparring, so that shows me he’s not as confident as he says he is.”

Coping with 2020

Originally scheduled for March in Cardiff, before being postponed until May, July and then cancelled and put back out for purse bids, Selby admits he did worry if his fight with Kambosos would ever materialise, having been the victim of boxing politics in the past.

However, Selby’s focus never waivered and he even built a gym in his home when Wales was first locked down due to the coronavirus pandemic, when he was unable to train conventionally.

“I’ve taken the year as it’s come, it is what it is,” Selby said. “There is a lot more going on in the world than Lee Selby not being able to box in Cardiff in March.

“I was concerned slightly the fight would fall through, but I try not to worry about things I can’t change.”

As for the postponements? “I’ve basically been in one, long camp for my whole career, so I am always ready,” he added.

Selby appreciates that he’s in a fortunate position, having looked after his money and fought at the elite level, but says some of his contemporaries have not been so fortunate.

“It’s been a very hard time for the sport. I know a lot of boxers, a lot of my friends have started looking for or are doing normal jobs,” he said.

“There is not going to be any small hall boxing in the near future so it’s a worry.

“My career could be going to it’s highest point at the same time as other people’s careers are ending because of this pandemic.”

‘I got a call to say my trainer got hit by a car’

As if 2020 could not get stranger for a boxer who suffered multiple fight cancellations and who built his own gym, there was still room for a twist in the tale as he prepared for a confirmed date with Kambosos.

Selby’s trainer for his whole professional career, Tony Borg, was hit by a car as he cycled home from his gym in the centre of Newport just a fortnight ago.

An ambulance was called and Borg was taken to hospital, but thankfully his injuries will heal.

“It was two weeks ago, I got the call from Tony’s wife Emma to say he’d been knocked off his bike,” Selby explained.

“He’s broken his leg, but he was back in the gym the next day in a big protective boot!

“It was a relief, I thought he’d be out of the fight when I heard… and he’s been in my corner for every fight I’ve had as a professional.

“I think with two broken legs he’d still want to be there and he’s been able to work the pads.

“Believe it or not it’s not the first time he’s broken his leg and it also isn’t the first time he’s been hit by a car.”