Lomachenko: I'll Fight Russell Anywhere, I Think He's Too Scared!

By Victor Salazar

Since suffering the first defeat of his pro career, Gary Russell Jr. (27-1, 16KOs) has been pushing for a rematch with two-time Olympic gold medal winner Vasyl Lomachenko.

The two fighters faced each other in June of 2014 for the vacant WBO featherweight title.

Lomachenko (5-1, 3KOs) won a twelve round majority decision to pick up the belt at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Since that loss, Russell picked up three wins in a row and captured the WBC featherweight championship with a fourth round knockout of veteran Jhonny Gonalez of Mexico.

Lomachenko made three defenses of his world title. He is now moving up in weight to 130-pounds to challenge Roman Martinez for the WBO super featherweight crown on June 11th at The Theater in Madison Square Garden.

Russell is not heading up in weight in the near future, but he claims to be more than willing to go up there if it means a rematch with Lomachenko. 

Lomachenko is not paying attention to Russell. After the fight with Martinez is over, the talented fighter from Ukraine is willing to face Russell at anytime - but he believes Russell will never face him. He says Russell is always calling for a rematch, but his management have never once approached Top Rank about doing a second fight.

“He’s always talking about me but he never talks about making a fight with me. Instead of fighting me he’s fighting somebody else. I have a message to him; anytime, anywhere. If he wants to do it we will be glad to it. But I think he’s too scared to fight me now,” Lomachenko told BoxingScene.com.