Gary Russell Jr. hopes Leo Santa Cruz changes his mind.
Russell wants to become the first opponent to knock out the four-division champion, something Russell suspects will happen if Santa Cruz squares off against Gervonta Davis instead. A Davis-Santa Cruz clash seemingly will happen sometime in the spring.
Securing that fight could require Santa Cruz to move up another weight class, from junior lightweight to lightweight, because Davis regularly struggles to make weight and currently is the WBA’s world 135-pound champion. No matter which weight they fight at, Russell is certain that the undefeated Davis would beat Santa Cruz, the opponent Russell has wanted to face in a featherweight title unification fight for a few years.
“I think Gervonta’s a bigger, stronger puncher,” Russell said during a recent episode of The PBC Podcast. “If I had to give the edge to anybody, I’d probably give the edge to Gervonta because he’s stronger. I think Leo could out-work him, but I think styles make fights and a lot of these guys are one-dimensional. What you see is what you get. You know, with Leo Santa Cruz, he’s a straight-forward fighter, he throws a lot of punches.
“You know, he tries to box at times, but you can see that he’s uncomfortable at doing it. It’s something that’s forced. It’s not coming natural. And I think just the way Leo fights, I think he’ll be open for Gervonta. I think Gervonta will probably win that fight easy because he’s the bigger puncher. I don’t think Leo has the ring generalship and the savviness to actually get that fight done. But you never know.”
The 31-year-old Russell (30-1, 18 KOs), of Capitol Heights, Maryland, will make a mandatory defense of his WBC featherweight title against Mongolia’s Tugstsogt Nyambayar (11-0, 9 KOs) on Saturday night. Showtime will air their 12-round, 126-pound title fight as the main event of a three-bout broadcast from PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
Russell, a 4-1 favorite over Nyambayar, has said he’ll move up from featherweight to lightweight if he wins Saturday night and cannot secure a fight against Santa Cruz next. The 31-year-old Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs), of Rosemead, California, owns the WBA’s “super” titles in both the 130-pound and 126-pound divisions.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.