Well done Selby, but Yafai... you've not got it.

I'd like to congratulate Andrew Selby, he's obviously the best man for the job. But what I would like to know from our readers is, do you believe Yafai really has a future? Sure, until yesterday, he had won his last two fights against Selby but do you not see his "missing the weight" today as a sign that his loss yesterday had destroyed his confidence and that he was too fragile mentally to really make it in a tough sport?

You ate being overly harsh on Yafai in my opinion. He missed weight by 300 grams. He did an interview with BBC, and stated that he had put on extra muscle, thinking it would aid him in the fight. The consequence was that it would be harder to make the weight. He injured his hand on Friday, spent most of the evening with the doctor, so couldn't try and lose any of the weight that evening. I initially thought the same as you, but feel now that Yafai was unfortunate.

Wrote this last night of a few sherbets and was intended to be a bit contraversial, but it still sniffs a little as if he realised he wouldn't win the second. If his hand injury is genuine it would account for the comfortable win by Selby and his unwillingness fight again. I have a suspicion thought that Selby has improved and he is just better than Yafai now. Which does ask a valid question of Yafai's quality(ies).

He tried twice to make the weight, when the scales closed he was just over the limit. I doubt he would make the injury story up, as he had to visit the team doctor and was with him most of the evening. If it wasn't genuine, he would have been found out quick enough.

But I agree, Selby is just plain better than Yafai. I mentioned on another thread common opponents of both, and how Selby has dealt better with them. Yafai's previous victories were both in the Juniors, so they weren't great indicators of how this bout would have unfolded. Yafai's World ranking of 4 flatters him, in my opinion. I could name at least 5 flyweights that I would rank ahead of him, and it's not a weight I follow all that keenly.

I don't think he was making the hand injury up but think if he had wanted to make the weight he perhaps would have looked after himself more.

As you say, I think he just knew Selby was better and it gave him an opt out.

I was just being contraversial in the original article. Although there is an element of truth in that it seems he didn't look after himself to avoid a second loss. Time will tell if he has the determination to make it.