Lee Selby: Welshman is beaten by Gustavo Lemos and hints at retirement

Lee Selby beat Russia's Evgeny Gradovich to claim the IBF featherweight title at the O2 Arena in London in 2015

Welsh boxer Lee Selby has hinted he could retire after losing by stoppage for the first time in his career at the hands of Gustavo Lemos in Argentina.

Selby was hoping for a chance to win a world title at lightweight, with this bout a final eliminator for the IBF lightweight title.

However, Selby, 34, was stopped in the fifth round by Lemos, who also floored the Welshman in the fourth round.

Lemos should now get a chance to fight champion George Kambosos Jr.

There will be a feeling of what have been for Selby, a former IBF featherweight world champion, who lost a split decision to Kambosos in a lightweight fight at Wembley Arena in October 2020.

Victory in that fight would have set up a huge bout and massive payday against American Teofimo Lopez, who was beaten on a split decision in New York in November by Kambosos Jr, who won the WBA, WBO and IBF lightweight belts.

Selby was bidding for the opportunity to become the first two-weight world champion from Wales, but was never able to dominate his unbeaten opponent at Luna Park in Buenos Aires.

Selby, 28-4, has now lost three of his last five fights, since Josh Warrington won his world featherweight title at Elland Road in 2018.

The Welsh boxer did mark his opponent in an even first round, before Lemos began to dominate, hurting Selby at the end of the third round and forcing him to take a knee in the fourth, before another flurry of unanswered punches in the fifth sent Selby to the canvas again, with the referee stepping in to wave off proceedings.

"A tough loss to take but sadly time waits for no man," Selby wrote on social media. "Getting hard to go toe to toe with these young guns 10 years my junior.

"Thanks for all the support back home, I'm all OK.

"Congratulations to Gustavo Lemos on the victory."