by David P. Greisman
Gary Russell Jr. is less than two months from his 28th birthday, an age at which many fighters are in their prime. The featherweight titleholder doesn’t see himself sticking around for too much longer, though.
“I would love to compete another two and a half, three years tops. God willing everything work out as planned, maybe five more fights, I’m done,” Russell told reporters earlier this month ahead of his bout this Saturday against Patrick Hyland in Connecticut on Showtime
Russell, who captured the World Boxing Council title last year with a demolition of Jhonny Gonzalez, hasn’t fought in about a year. He suffered an injury late last year that scuttled a defense against Oscar Escandon. At the time of the interview with press, he said he wanted a unification bout after the Hyland fight, aiming for the winner of the IBF title fight between Lee Selby vs. Eric Hunter. Selby won that fight by unanimous decision.
“Immediately after that of course we’d like to see Leo Santa Cruz, and let’s not forget before my career is over with, I don’t care if this guy loses his next 15, 20 fights — [Vasyl] Lomachenko has to see me. He has to see me,” Russell said.
Those are the men with the other major titles — Santa Cruz with the WBA, Lomachenko with the WBO. Lomachenko may end up jumping to 130 to face titleholder Roman Martinez in June. That doesn’t bother Russell, who said he’d go up to whatever weight to avenge his majority decision loss to Lomachenko from 2014.
For now, though, featherweight is where Russell wants to ply his trade.
“Honestly I feel as thought the smaller weight class is in full demand of all the talent and everything that comes with it. I definitely plan on staying down in this weight class,” he said.
Later, he was asked about making weight.
“It’s becoming a little more difficult to make 126, but it’s nothing that a hard worker can do,” Russell said.
He also didn’t rule out a bout with Abner Mares, the former titleholder who was deposed by Gonzalez in 2013 and lost a decision to Santa Cruz last year.
“I think he still has the fan base to generate the revenue we’re looking for, so he definitely fits into that,” Russell said. “But right now we’re looking at snatching up all this hardware.”
Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
