LEE SELBY is eager to face the winner of the mouth-watering featherweight world title clash between WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton this weekend.
The Welshman, who holds the IBF featherweight title, will fly out to New York on Thursday in order to catch the fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Selby, like Santa Cruz and Frampton, is managed by Al Haymon and so believes making a fight with the victor should prove fairly straight-forward.
“I’m still waiting on a date for my next fight, but I’m hoping to get the winner of Santa Cruz-Frampton,” he told Boxing News.
“I’ve seen Frampton say he’d be interested in fighting me and I’ve also seen a few press releases and video interviews where Santa Cruz has said he’d like to fight me. We’re all with Al Haymon so it should be able to happen.
“If Frampton wins, a fight between me and him in the UK would be huge. I’m heading out to New York so I can be ringside to accept the winner’s challenge.”
Northern Irishman Frampton is moving up to 126lbs after unifying the IBF and WBA titles at super-bantamweight against Scott Quigg in February.
He’s a betting underdog for the first time in his professional career, having to deal with the jump in weight and Santa Cruz’s rampant work rate.
While Selby struggles to pick a winner in the stellar match-up, he understands what ‘The Jackal’ will need to do on the night.
“It’s a 50-50 fight. If Frampton can box and move and stay on the back foot for 12 rounds, he can win, but that’s a tough ask. Santa Cruz is strong, stronger than Quigg, and he doesn’t stop. It might be hard to hold him off.
“Santa Cruz also starts fast, so Frampton will need to be aware of that. Frampton can punch though, and moving up in weight might help him. It really is a 50-50 fight.”
