Gary Antuanne Russell and Andy Hiraoka are finally set to collide.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the WBA 140lbs title fight will land on the February 21 Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia undercard at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Russell, 18-1 (17 KOs), will make his maiden title defense, while the unbeaten Hiraoka, 24-0 (19 KOs), stands as the overdue mandatory challenger ahead of his first major title fight.
The contest was originally designated to appear on the first Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) event of 2026. Those plans at the time included its intention to partner – to some degree – with Golden Boy Promotions to present the Barrios-Garcia WBC welterweight title fight as the headliner to a PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view event.
The fights within the show – Barrios-Garcia and Russell-Hiraoka – still hold true, though not ownership of the overall event. Ring Magazine owner Turki Alalshikh has since seized control of the show, with a press conference scheduled for Thursday to formally announce the DAZN PPV card.
Russell-Hiraoka has been in play for more than six months, particularly after one fight date fell through. The title fight officially became homeless with the cancellation of a November 14 Netflix card that was to have been topped by the previously announced Jake Paul-Gervonta “Tank” Davis exhibition. The high-profile affair was scrapped once Davis ran into legal troubles, as he remains the subject of a civil lawsuit and now a criminal investigation leading to a warrant for his arrest on charges of battery, false imprisonment and attempted kidnapping from an October 2025 incident in South Florida.
Paul, 12-2 (7 KOs), went on to face former two-time unified heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua in December. The rescheduled event included most of the supporting cast from the November date, absent Russell-Hiraoka. That fight fell out of the lineup once PBC – who represents Davis and Russell – was no longer involved with the event given Davis’ removal.
Russell has not fought since his title win, which came in a March 1 unanimous decision over Jose Valenzuela, 14-3 (9 KOs).
The 28-year-old southpaw from Capitol Heights, Maryland became the second member of his proud fighting family to win a major title. His corner was led by 2016 Olympian on fight night was Gary Russell Jr., Gary Antuanne’s older brother who held the WBC featherweight title from 2015-2022.
The younger Russell’s title win came nine months after his lone career defeat. Russell dropped a twelve-round decision to Alberto Puello in their vacant WBC junior welterweight title fight last June 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hiraoka has been the mandatory challenger since a ninth-round knockout of Ismael Barroso, 25-5-2 (23 KOs), last September 3 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
The bout was part of a show headlined by celebrated stablemate Naoya Inoue’s seventh-round stoppage of TJ Doheny to successfully defend his undisputed junior featherweight championship.
With the win, Hiraoka, also a 28-year-old southpaw, claimed his 10th consecutive knockout victory. He’s yet to be taken beyond the 11th round, a distance he was extended in an eventual October 2021 knockout of countryman Jin Sasaki, a recent welterweight title challenger.
