Victorious Sellars targets English title shot

The 24-year-old Halifax fighter beat Blackburn’s Mickey Ellison by 96-95 on points in Rotherham on Saturday after stepping in at just three days’ notice.

The former Halifax ABC boxer was claiming his first professional belt after two previous unsuccessful attempts at super welterweight and middleweight.

A relieved Sellars said: “Winning the title is great and it does mean a lot to me.

“Even if I were to retire now, at least I’ve got a belt to my name and something to look back on.”

“It was a good fight and I was coming up against a big strong come-forward fighter in Mickey.

“He was a little bit of slow mover coming forward and I think my fitness to keep the fight at range was what won it for me.”

Sellars, who is from Northowram, said he had felt fairly comfortable early on and thought he had won the early rounds.

”I got a little bit too relaxed and let him back into the fight but then Danny (Thornton, trainer) gave me a bit of a kick up the backside and I finished quite strongly.

“It was a good fight, an entertaining one.”

Sellars thought that he’d won by a good few rounds but had a scare when the MC, in announcing the result, said the verdict had been by the narrowest of margins.

“I thought to myself ‘here we go again’,” said Sellars, in reference to what he felt was an unjust defeat by a slender margin against Matthew Wigglesworth in his previous bout.

“Thankfully I got the result this time, and I believe I was the deserved winner.”

The contest was Sellars’ first at super middleweight and he plans to move back down in weight moving forward.

“I do think that I’m a middleweight and not a super middleweight because, despite getting the win, he was far bigger than me in there,” he added.

“Moving forward, I’d like to look towards an English title shot now. I know Reece Cartwright is fighting Jack Cullen for title in May and we’ll see what comes of that.

“Within the next 12 months, I’d like to have a shot at that. If other fights come up in the meantime, me and Danny will sit down and discuss them, but I’m not taking stupid fights that I’m going to lose.”

“I just love that challenge of going into my opponent’s backyard, with everyone in there wanting me to lose, and me trying to upset the odds.

“Personally, I don’t like being the centre of attention. After the fight, I got lots of people congratulating me and wanting photos, which felt strange to me. It’s nice to have the support, of course it is.

“But, I’d rather get in the ring, have a fight and no one know who I am.”