LEE SELBY battled through blood, sweat and tears to retain his IBF featherweight world title just four days after his mum tragically died.

The Welsh warrior somehow managed to not only step through the ropes and fight in her honour, but school a former WBA world champion in solid Jonathan Barros, with a heavily bleeding eye.

Over a dozen rounds – even with the gash from a clash of heads – with heartbreak surely haunting the Barry man, Selby ran away with the fight 119-108 and 117-110 twice.

Selby should have fought the Argentine veteran in January but he controversially failed pre-fight medicals, with blood tests allegedly showing up hepatitis A, in a cloudy incident.

But the result here was crystal clear as Selby – in front of ringside guest Carl Frampton who he hopes to fight next – ran rings around the south American in a show of incredible grit.

In the opening four rounds Selby boxing like a man that has blocked out every other thought imaginable to get this job done.

Emotionless and dead-eyed in there as he evaded Barros and picked him off with venom.

In the fifth the challenger clumsily lunged in and the 30-year-old manhandled him to the floor, using the Barros’ unfortunate momentum to sling him to the canvas in an act of dominance.

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A trickle of blood started above Selby’s right eye toward the end of the fifth – the result of a skull collision.

But by the time the bell came it was a crimson stream tracing down his cheek and defining his jawline, in a worry for his corner.

The veteran brawler marched forward in the desperate hunt for his second world title but the Argentine would have needed both of God’s hands as Selby danced around London.

Barros was not bloody but his razor-sharp cheekbones carried deep marks, sure signs of relentless pounding from the arrow-like Selby jab that could put any hook or uppercut out of business.

The Champ demonstrated his comfort and skill with a southpaw switch in the eighth – if only to signal high and wide to the judges that he felt no pressure.

And in the following round he was almost showboating with outrageous subtlety.

Anyone thrilled by two men screaming b**** at each other in the exact same spot 24 hours earlier would have been bored to tears by the understated ring craft Selby produced in a masterclass.

There was even time for a crunching left hook to send the visitor sprawling to the canvas, though he made the count and finished on his feet.

Selby’s arm was raised, his hardest fight was won. His mother would have been very proud.

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