LONDON -- Lee Selby ended a miserable 2017 on a high with a comfortable and classy points win over Eduardo Ramirez on Saturday.
Selby (26-1, 9 KOs) made a fourth defence of his IBF world featherweight title by earning unanimous scores of 118-110, 119-109 and 116-112 over the previously unbeaten Ramirez at the Copper Box Arena in Stratford, east London.
The Welshman will next face England's Josh Warrington (26-0, 6 KOs), his mandatory challenger, in Leeds in the spring after containing rather than crushing Ramirez (20-1-3, 7 KOs), who failed to make weight meaning he could not have won the title.
It was a happy end to a difficult year for Selby, inside and outside the ring.
A title defence against Argentina's Jonathan Barros in Las Vegas in January, a chance to impress on the stage, was postponed at less than a day's notice. The fight was rearranged in London on July 15, but four days before Selby's mother Frankie suddenly died. Selby went ahead with the fight and impressively out-pointed Barros but a big fight against former titleholder Carl Frampton, of Northern Ireland, then failed to happen.
Instead, Selby faced Ramirez who gave the impression pre-fight he was not interested. The Mexican failed to make weight at a check weigh-in on Wednesday and then did not turn up to a press conference.
However, Ramirez showed plenty of heart in the ring and proved a stubborn opponent in an absorbing contest.
Selby, 30, landed some crisp punches in the early rounds but Ramirez was aggressive and ambitious throughout.
In an entertaining third round, Ramirez caught Selby with three lefts early on, but the Welshman then unloaded some slick combinations, before then expertly slipping southpaw Ramirez's counter shots later in the round.
Selby's flowing movement, gliding in and out of range with fast flurries of punches, is a joy for purists and advocates of the sweet science. But there was not enough power in the punches to trouble Ramirez until he tired in the latter rounds.
By the seventh, Ramirez was feeling the pace and Selby was catching him more often before scuttling away or ducking the counter shot.
Selby tried to finish it in an excellent 12th round, but also got caught on a few occasions by Ramirez. In the final few seconds, Ramirez stumbled after being caught by a left hook to the temple and Selby knew he had comfortably done enough by the end.
On the undercard, Anthony Yarde continued his march towards world title contention by stopping Nikola Sjekloca in the fourth round.
Yarde (14-0, 13 KOs), ranked No. 5 with the WBO governing body, broke down his experienced opponent who was stopped after a second knockdown.
Sjekloca (32-5-1, 11 KOs), 39, had drawn with Robert Stieglitz in his previous fight for the European title and had never been stopped after taking the likes of Arthur Abraham and Callum Smith the distance at super-middleweight.
The Montenegro boxer did better than Yarde's previous opponents in that he was able to fire back at the English boxer, who gave a wry smile at the unfamiliar experience of being caught.
But Sjekloca was in trouble and down later in the second when Yarde landed an exquisite right uppercut followed by a right cross.
Yarde, who lives in Ilford but grew up in Stratford, had to wait for his chances more in this fight than previous outings which have been far too easy for him.
It was over by the fourth though, after Yarde landed two big rights at the start of the round and another flurry of punches put Sjekloca down for a count. When Sjekloca got up he was on wobbly legs and it was soon waved off.
Another big puncher is London heavyweight Daniel Dubois, who notched his sixth knockout win from as many fights with a two-round demolition of Dorian Darch.
Dubois, 20, floored Welshman Darch three times in the second, once in the first, in another display of his ferocious punching power. It matched the same two-round win world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua managed in his fourth professional fight in 2014.