Gary Russell Jr open to facing Terence Crawford at 147
If it’s one thing that WBC world featherweight champion “Mr.” Gary Russell Jr.(31-1, 18 KO’s) is always looking for, it’s a big time marque fight. Generally speaking, he has opted to call out those in his own or neighboring weight divisions. Yet, Mr. changed gears a bit when offered to move up a whooping four divisions to take on WBO world welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (36-0, 27 KO’s).
The seemingly out-of-the-blue tall order finds its origins in an interview that Russell staged with Barbershop Conversations. During that interview, the DC native narrated a lengthy story about how Crawford was out-crafted in the ring by a personal friend. When Bud exited the ring angered about the sparring session, Russell stated that a heated verbal session between them ended only after Mr. socked Crawford in the mouth.
DO SOMETHING
Knowing full well that telling a story like that is akin to throwing a rock at a bees nest, Russell is ready for any blow back that he might receive from Team Crawford. In fact, right after retelling his version of that fateful day, Mr. freely offered to fight Bud in the in the ring if he had any problem with the things that he had said.
“Put it like this, if Terence feel some type of way about it, if he don’t have a fight, I’ll fight him. He can get that shit back, what’s up.”
“Fuck yeah I would fight, I’m a cold man once again! Right now I am probably about 138, 139…if he is mad about me being honest about some shit that really the fuck happened, tell him to tell Bob [Arum] to give me a call. We can make a fight happen, he can redeem himself.”
BLAND HOT SAUCE
While the call-out is bold and exciting enough, there is not a great likelihood that anything will really come from it. One of the biggest negative talking points against Terence Crawford is that he has a shallow resume. Hell, even Russell himself took shots at Bud’s tally of professional foes.
“They can make a bum off the street a superstar if they really wanted to. They could do that in 48 hours if they really wanted to! Give em 72 hours and they will make a bum off the street a superstar, if they really wanted to; if they promoted and marketed it the right way. He just been promoted and marketed in a certain type of way, that’s it and that’s all.”
“He never fought anybody mothafucking relevant since you want to bring it up. Who the fuck has Terence fought? […] Terence ain’t fight no one that’s real credible. And everybody he fight he get hit, he get hit easy. I’m going to touch you if I fight him.”
Yet, it is precisely because Crawford’s resume is so micromanaged that there really is no upside to him penning a fight with a guy four divisions south. What possible credit would he get for that victory? Although it will be fun to see the future back-and-forth this interview has a good chance of kicking up.
By: Bakari Simpson
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