If a Gervonta Davis-Leo Santa Cruz match materializes, Gary Russell Jr. cannot envision them competing at the junior lightweight limit of 130 pounds.
Davis has said he’ll move down from 135 pounds, the lightweight limit at which he made his debut December 28, to face Santa Cruz next. Santa Cruz made his 130-pound debut in his last bout, but he also has stated that he would jump up one more weight class, to 135 pounds, for the opportunity to oppose Davis.
Russell hopes Santa Cruz chooses to box him instead of Davis. Regardless, he is convinced Davis no longer can make 130 pounds.
“I don’t see Gervonta Davis moving down in weight,” Russell said during the most recent episode of The PBC podcast. “I think his unprofessionalism and the way that he is, his lifestyle, will catch up to him. It’s no way in hell that he’ll be able to make 130. Even if they made the fight at 130, I doubt Gervonta would be able to make the weight.”
Davis’ notorious struggles to make weight continued prior to his last fight – a 12th-round stoppage of Yuriorkis Gamboa on December 28 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The Baltimore native weighed a career-high 136¼ pounds on his first attempt, but eventually officially weighed in at 134½ pounds for that WBA 135-pound championship match.
Nevertheless, Russell thinks it’s possible that Davis (23-0, 22 KOs) and Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) will fight next.
“Anything’s possible,” Russell said. “Anything’s possible, you know? Maybe Leo will say, ‘Hey, you know, I’ll move up to [135] to fight him.’ You know, maybe he’ll try to fight him at a catch weight or something. But if they try to make that fight at 130, I’ll bet whatever anybody wanna bet on that. I feel as though [Davis] don’t have the ability to make the weight. He barely made the weight at 135 his last fight.”
The 31-year-old Russell (30-1, 18 KOs), of Capitol Heights, Maryland, has been vocal about wanting to fight Santa Cruz or Davis, but he is fully focused this week on making a mandatory defense of his WBC featherweight title against Mongolia’s Tugstsogt Nyambayar (11-0, 9 KOs) on Saturday night. Showtime will televise the Russell-Nyambayar match as the main event of a tripleheader from PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.