PLANT CITY, Florida — When Gary Russell Jnr returned to the ring after three-and-a-half years away from it, it looked like he hadn’t missed a step.

The 37-year-old former WBC featherweight champion stepped back into the ring in July against Hugo Castaneda when dropping the Mexican journeyman four times en route to a 10th-round stoppage win on the Mario Barrios-Manny Pacquiao undercard.

That fight was the first for Russell, 32-2 (19 KOs), since losing his world title to Mark Magsayo in January 2022. Afterwards, Russell needed time to recover from a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder, which required surgery. 

Competing as a lightweight in 2025, Russell says he felt like he was picking up right where he left off.

“It felt good – it felt like I was back at home,” Russell told BoxingScene. “I had to take off the time for my shoulder injury, I tore the tendon in my rotator cuff. It put me down; that was the longest I was actually off from being able to work out, let alone compete. I’m a person that loves to work out; I like my body to look a certain type of way; I like to feel a certain type of way. But I feel good; I feel healthy at 135; I feel strong at 135. I brought power, speed, ring generalship and boxing IQ there.”

Russell is hoping to next make a fight with another native of Washington D.C. – the WBA junior-lightweight titleholder Lamont Roach. Roach, 25-1-2 (10 KOs), is coming off a draw against Gervonta “Tank” Davis at lightweight in March. Though a rematch appeared inevitable afterwards, a fight date hasn’t been made official, and Davis has been sidetracked by issues outside of the ring – including a domestic violence arrest in July for charges that have since been dropped.

“I want Lamont Roach – I want to do it right at home in our city,” Russell said. “There’s no fight that Lamont Roach would be able to make currently that would be bigger as far as revenue or notoriety or exposure than to fight against me at home.

“Unless he’s rematching with ‘Tank’, there’s nobody else he can fight to generate the kind of revenue we’re making.”

Russell says that while he has never sparred with Roach, their families have known and supported each other for years.

“They came up a little after me but I think it’s great and goes to showcase the city and the skill set that the area brings,” he said. “The city has talent all over the place. Now we’ll see who the best really is.”

Russell acknowledges that between himself, Roach and Davis they could do a mini lightweight tournament just in the “DMV” region, but he says that Davis has to first get back into fight mode.

“There’s definitely a couple of fights that can be made,” he said. “Tank has stuff going on, I don’t know what he has going on – we have a life outside of boxing. Hopefully the fans understand that. Whatever Tank is going through personally outside of boxing, God willing, he can get through it but he has shit that he has to do.

“Right now I want Lamont Roach, it’s simple.”

Russell, in addition to resuming his pro career, has taken over as the head trainer for his brothers, most recently guiding his Gary Antonio Russell, 21-1 (13 KOs), to an eight-round unanimous decision win over Dervin Rodriguez on a ProBox card earlier in August in Lakeland, Florida. With the win, the 32-year-old Gary Antonio Russell is likely to face recent junior-featherweight title challenger Ramon Cardenas later in 2025.

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