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By Jake Donovan - Gary Russell Jr. had been waiting since the morning of opening round competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics to have the chance at making the world stand up and take notice at his in-ring performance.
The D.C. native finally notched the first of what he expects to be several great moments in his career Saturday evening at the Palms in Las Vegas. A one-sided 4th round knockout of Jhonny Gonzalez netted Russell a featherweight title, and a small dose of redemption for having failed miserably in his first attempt at such honors.
“This is the kind of performance I always expect but don’t always get,’’ said Russell, whose previous bid at a belt ended with a 12-round loss to Vasyl Lomachenko last June. “If people only knew how hard we worked for this, the time we put in the gym, the mental and physical things we work on and put ourselves through every day.
“There are always obstacles to overcome but for this fight I was 100 percent. This win is for all the people who have been with me from the beginning.’’
It came out during fight week in the days leading up to Saturday’s fight as to why Russell expected – and delivered – a far stronger performance. The claim from his camp was the manner in which he was asked to make weight prior to the Lomachenko fight – staying at full strength until 2-3 days before the weigh-in, at which point his unnamed strength and conditioning coach asked him to spend time in the sauna to shed the remaining weight above the limit. [Click Here To Read More]
The D.C. native finally notched the first of what he expects to be several great moments in his career Saturday evening at the Palms in Las Vegas. A one-sided 4th round knockout of Jhonny Gonzalez netted Russell a featherweight title, and a small dose of redemption for having failed miserably in his first attempt at such honors.
“This is the kind of performance I always expect but don’t always get,’’ said Russell, whose previous bid at a belt ended with a 12-round loss to Vasyl Lomachenko last June. “If people only knew how hard we worked for this, the time we put in the gym, the mental and physical things we work on and put ourselves through every day.
“There are always obstacles to overcome but for this fight I was 100 percent. This win is for all the people who have been with me from the beginning.’’
It came out during fight week in the days leading up to Saturday’s fight as to why Russell expected – and delivered – a far stronger performance. The claim from his camp was the manner in which he was asked to make weight prior to the Lomachenko fight – staying at full strength until 2-3 days before the weigh-in, at which point his unnamed strength and conditioning coach asked him to spend time in the sauna to shed the remaining weight above the limit. [Click Here To Read More]
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