Gary Russell Ain’t Nothing Personal
Recently, WBC world featherweight champion “Mr.” Gary Russell Jr’s (30-1, 18 KO’s) unorthodox method of attempting to goad WBA super world champion Leo “El Terremoto” Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KO’s) into a prizefight made headlines. The video call-out began with Russell draping his arm around Cruz’s father and issuing numerous not so subtle threats. Many fans and boxing insiders have condemned the act. Others brush it off as par for the course, while several people just thought it was funny.
Not having gotten his fill of video posts, Mr. Gary Russell released another post. This time, the Washington DC native expressed his willingness to face the red hot contender Shakur “Fearless” Stevenson (12-0, 7 KO’s). When discussing Stevenson, Russell was full of respect. He did not display an ounce of the distaste he demonstrated for Santa Cruz. In fact, Russell didn’t so much call-out Stevenson as he merely expressed that he would fight the younger boxer.
Beyond suggesting a fight in a roundabout fashion, Russell did pay Stevenson a compliment. He did so by speculating that the WBO #1 ranking fighter was the only fighter in the featherweight division with enough moxie to step in the ring with him. Russell has claimed for some time now that his long stretches of inactivity are not his doing, or to his liking. If left up to him, he would compete far more regularly. The current WBC featherweight champ insists that the other top fighters and champions simply will not face him.
“I don’t have nothing personal against Shakur, but Shakur know what it is for real, for real. And to keep it 1oo with you, he probably is the only one that got enough balls to jump out there and fight. And that’s probably because he young. You know when you young you don’t make some of the best decisions out there man. So it be like that sometimes, he might be the only one that got a little balls to do it. But shit, he can get it too! Nothing personal, I like shorty. But if he jump his little ass out there, we passing em out!” ~Gary Russell Jr, WBC world featherweight champion
Apparently, his woes in securing a proper dust-up have gotten so difficult that Russell is flirting with the idea of jumping up in weight. In the same feed that he spoke of Shakur Stevenson, Russell made it public information that he was moving up if no one of note would step up to the plate.
It would be interesting to see Gary Russell try his hand at 135lbs. When elevating just one weight class, fighters have been known to run into unforeseen difficulties. Will their power carry up? How will they carry the new weight and will their stamina dip a bit? These are all acid test questions that can only be answered on fight night. And Russell is talking about hopping up two divisions for double the intrigue.
“And to keep it 1oo, I might my next joint in December. I might be at 135 in my next fight since motha-fuckas acting like they don’t want to fight me. My next fight might be at 135 instead of 126.”
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. Will Stevenson take the opportunity to face the older lion and put the solid name on his resume? It doesn’t look like Cruz wants anything to do with Russell right now and the IBF world featherweight champion Josh “Leeds Warrior” Warrington has an October 12 fight on the books. So, it’s pretty clear that he won’t be fighting a featherweight champion any time soon. Maybe Russell will make good on this declaration to move to lightweight.
There, he could try to pen a fight with WBO, WBC and WBA lightweight champion Vasiliy “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KO’s). The two fought back on June 21, 2014 where Lomachenko walked away with a majority decision. Mr. Gary Russell has always insisted that he was not at his physical best that night. A rematch with the highly touted Ukrainian fighter would suit Russell just fine.
In any event, 3kingsboxing will be sure to report all the latest developments in Russell’s dynamic, if not sporadic, career.
“Hell yea I want a mothafucking rematch! […] Yea I want a rematch, he fought a dehydrated version of Mr. Gary Russell Jr. Five pounds, I had to lose five pounds and he still couldn’t do nothing, still couldn’t knock me down, drop me, no nothing and it was still the toughest fight of his career. Nobody knew who the fuck Lomachenko was until he fought Mr. Gary Russell Jr, facts!” ~Gary Russell Jr., WBC world featherweight champion
By: Bakari Simpson
