Whoever claims undisputed lightweight glory when George Kambosos Jr. meets Devin Haney on June 5th will have yet another dangerous contender waiting in the wings, as unbeaten Argentinean Gustavo Lemos stopped Lee Selby in an IBF final eliminator this past Saturday.
Selby (28-4, 9 KO) hadn’t fought since narrowly falling to Kambosos in October 2020 but looked sharp in the opening round. It wasn’t to last; the 26-year-old Lemos (28-0, 18 KO), who’s fought the entirety of his six-year pro career in his home country, simply refused to respect or acknowledge the counters coming his way as he bullied his way inside and blasted Selby with hard body shots and thudding rights to the head.
Selby truly started to break in the fourth, and a more trigger-happy referee might have stopped things as Lemos tore into him against the ropes. He managed to fire back, but a pair of rights to the body and head sent him to a knee. Though he beat the count and fought back admirably to start the fifth, his complete inability to hurt Lemos meant the writing was on the wall. “El Electrico” dropped him again in the opening seconds, then folded him with a right body shot that sent the ref into action about 90 seconds later.
Lemos has now ended 14 of his last 15 fights inside the distance and become the latest in a long line of unknown Argentine bruisers to bash his way onto the world stage. It may be quite a while before he gets his shot, though. Kambosos was the IBF mandatory when he beat Teofimo Lopez Jr., meaning the sanctioning body is now at the end of the line for a shot at the unified champ. It’ll be even longer if Haney wins, as Kambosos has a rematch clause and Vasiliy Lomachenko is presumably still on deck.