Gary Russell Jr.: record, next fight and profile →
Boxing’s new season is already in full swing with a heavyweight pay-per-view card already in the bag. January 2022 will play out with multiple title fights but the bigger stuff is still over the horizon.
Filipino puncher Mark Magsayo is getting geared up for the biggest opportunity of his career. On Saturday, January 22, Magsayo will challenge WBC featherweight world champion Gary Russell Jr.
On Wednesday, it was officially announced that WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. would return to the ring for his next world title defense. Russell will collide with WBC mandatory challenger Mark Magsayo.
WBC Featherweight World Champion Gary Russell Jr. will defend his world title and display his blistering hand speed against top contender and WBC mandatory challenger Mark Magsayo headlining action live on SHOWTIME Saturday, January 22 in a Premier Boxing Champions event from Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J.
Gary Russell Jr. will end the longest layoff of his career January 22. BoxingScene.com has learned that Russell will make a mandated defense of his WBC featherweight title against Mark Magsayo that night in a “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event. The site for their 12-round, 126-pound championship bout hadn’t been determined as of Tuesday afternoon.
Devin Haney remains on the hunt for his next title defense while the last two opponents he has expected to fight are instead ordered to face each other. Four mandatory title fights and eliminators were revealed by the World Boxing Council (WBC) as either in progress or due to be ordered. Among the lot is a potential lightweight clash between Ryan Garcia (21-0, 18KOs) and former IBF junior lightweight titlist Joseph Diaz (32-1-1, 15KOs), with the bout in discussion for weeks and now coming with the WBC’s blessing.
LAS VEGAS – Mark Magsayo is open to fighting any of boxing’s featherweight champions. His preference, however, is to test himself against Gary Russell Jr., the long-reigning WBC 126-pound champion. Magsayo’s spectacular knockout of Julio Ceja last month at T-Mobile Arena improved his status with the WBC because their scheduled 12-round fight was a WBC elimination match.
Longtime 126-pound titleholder Gary Russell Jr. is not sure what more he can do to get Gervonta Davis to fight him. After all, the two share the same manager (Al Haymon), appear on the same network (Showtime), were both raised in the DMV area (Russell in D.C., Davis in Baltimore), and fight in and around the same weight class. It does not not hurt either that both have traded words over the past couple of years.
Leo Santa Cruz’s five-fight winning streak was snapped on Halloween last year when he suffered a scary knockout to Gervonta Davis in a junior lightweight bout. The four-division Mexican champion has won titles at 118, 122, 126, and 130.
WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. is not pulling any punches discussing how feels about the Sunday exhibition between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Logan Paul -- or the participants headlining Showtime’s pay-per-view event at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.