Gary Russell Jr.: record, next fight and profile →
BoxingScene.com recently caught up with interim WBC featherweight champion Oscar Escandon who faces full WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. on May 20th in Maryland. The fight will headline a card televised by Showtime. Russell is very big favorite in the fight and the only reason the fight is happening is because it was mandated by the WBC.
As expected, Gary Russell Jr.’s return from a long layoff has been rescheduled for May 20. Russell will make a mandatory defense of his WBC world featherweight title that night against interim champion Oscar Escandon. Showtime will televise the Russell-Escandon encounter as the main event of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” doubleheader from MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
NEW YORK – Gary Russell Jr.’s year-long layoff likely will come to an end May 20 or May 27. Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza said that the Russell-Oscar Escandon featherweight title fight probably will be rescheduled for one of those two dates. Either way, it would air along with the re-broadcast of one of two fights Showtime already has committed to televising live from England on those dates.
Gary Russell Jr. will have to wait a little longer to fight again. The WBC world featherweight champion’s lengthy layoff, already approaching a year, was extended Tuesday because the opponent he was supposed to meet March 11, Oscar Escandon, has suffered a back injury. Escandon’s injury caused the entire card to be postponed.
BoxingScene.com has been advised that a Showtime televised doubleheader is being targeted for March 11 in Washington, DC. The card would feature two mandatory defenses, which involve WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo and WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. Charlo has a mandatory owed to Charles Hatley, while Russell will be ordered to face interim-champion Oscar Escandon.
2016 was a big one for Oscar Valdez (21-0, 19 KOs) as he fulfilled a life-long dream of becoming a world champion. On July 23rd he blew out Matias Rueda in two rounds to capture the WBO featherweight title.
Once WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. overcomes the upcoming defense against Colombian contender Oscar Escandon, he then plans to target all of the world champions at 126 - with a clear goal to unify the titles. Escandon, who holds the WBC's interim-belt, is the mandatory challenger.
Gary Russell Jr. (27-1, 16 KOs) is aiming to unify the featherweight division after he makes the third defence of his WBC crown on the Adrien Broner undercard on February 18th.
LAS VEGAS – Bob Arum would be fine with putting Vasyl Lomachenko in the ring with Gary Russell Jr. again. Russell has long said that he wants another shot at Lomachenko, who beat him by majority decision in June 2014 to win the then-vacant WBO world featherweight title in Carson, California. The 2008 American Olympian told BoxingScene.com earlier this year that working with a since-fired strength and conditioning coach caused Russell to have trouble making the 126-pound limit for the Lomachenko match and adversely affected his performance.
WBO featherweight world champion Oscar Valdez is looking for the biggest fights possible in 2017. Valdez (21-0, 19KOs) had three ring appearances in 2016.