WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. hungry for a challenge

Gary Russell Jr. defends his WBC  featherweight title against Kiko Martinez on Saturday, May 18. He wishes he was fighting someone else.

There’s no easy path to becoming a boxing world champion. Most start boxing in their youth, suffer through injuries and punishing workouts just for a chance at earning immortality in the ring. Gary Russell Jr. (29-1, 17 KOs) endured all of the above on his championship boxing journey. It’s just unfortunate that he hasn’t received more credit and notoriety.

Russell defends his WBC featherweight title against veteran Kiko Martinez on Saturday, May 18 on the undercard of the Showtime Deontay Wilder vs. Dominic Breazeale heavyweight title affair. It’s his fourth title defense, but regrettably, it isn’t against a more challenging and eye-catching opponent.

Russel has all the makings of a boxing superstar. He’s a skilled southpaw who has a sterling amateur pedigree. The Russell family is known for producing boxers. Gary Russell Sr. is the patriarch the Russell family and has created five sons all with the name Gary who have achieved varying degrees of success as boxers. Russell Jr. happens to be the one world champion at the moment, but his younger brother Gary Antuanne Russell is making waves as a rising super lightweight prospect.

Russell should be a popular champion, but he doesn’t get the recognition deserving of his achievements. Part of the problem is his lack of activity. He has fought four times since 2015 and has only fought once a year in that time. Despite the criticism, he insists that his lack of activity isn’t his fault.

“I can’t make these guys get into the ring,” emphasized Russell to FanSided. “At the end of the day, I understand the reason why. I have a lot of fans ask, ‘Why does he fight once a year?’ The reason for that is I can’t get none of these other guys to get into the ring with me. My skillset is out the roof. It’s difficult to get these guys in the ring. What’s life without adversity.”

Russell wants the biggest fights out there, but boxing’s politics continuously get in the way. In life, there’s the way we wished things were and then there’s the way that things are. The way things are for Russell is that he’s struggling to nail down big-name opponents, so he’s forced to fight a limited boxer like Martinez.

“My biggest goal is to make the most money possible,” said Russell. “That’s what we’re in this sport for. We’re prizefighters. This fight shouldn’t have been a Kiko Martinez. I wanted it to be Leo Santa Cruz or a unification bout, but I understand that politics plays a big part in everything that goes on.”

Russell has a clear vision of the way he wants his career to be after his meeting with Martinez.

“If it was up to me, I would love to fight Leo Santa Cruz,” asserted Russell. ” I would love a Gervonta Davis fight. If not, I will move up in weight. I will challenge [Miguel] Berchelt. I will relinquish my title and move up to challenge him for his. After that, I would love to get a fight with Gervonta Davis, and then I will move up again and get Lomachenko.”

There are three other featherweight title holders, but if Russell can’t secure a fight with them, he’s willing to give the super featherweight division a run for its money. Ultimately, there’s an elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for Russell, and that’s a rematch with lightweight phenom and pound-for-pound great Vasiliy Lomachenko.

Russell dropped a majority decision to Lomachenko in 2014 when Lomachenko was still a featherweight. Lomachenko was a step ahead of Russell all night. He was the more impressive boxer physically and mentally. According to Russell, his style wasn’t the problem but his depleted energy after cutting weight.

“It wasn’t nothing that he [Lomachenko] did,” said Russell. ” We had to lose weight, and I ended up losing weight in the wrong way.”

Russell believes that he has the skills and boxing I.Q. to defeat Lomachenko. Other than earning money, his main goal is to exact revenge against Lomachenko. When asked what’s the heaviest division he could compete in, Russell comically responded, “Whatever weight Vasiliy Lomaechenko’s at. That’s the highest weight I can see myself at.”

Russell’s goals are lofty and attainable, but time isn’t on his side. He told The Washington Post last May that he only has six more fight left. After the Martinez bout, that would leave five more. He still plans to walk away from boxing in the next few years.

“I’m definitely still looking at that time frame. Nothing changes.

“I had my first match at seven years old when I was actually supposed to be eight,” recalled Russell. “They pulled some strings for me. Now I’m 30. It’s a long time. I’ve been competing for a long time.”

It seems like Russell Jr. and Sr. are on the same page.

“I would like to see him [Russell Jr.] walk into the bank with a nice, hefty sum of money to rest up on,” echoed Russell Sr. to FanSided. “We would like to unify the title and get three, four, or five more fights before he quits.”

Hopefully, Russell can nobly dispatch of Martinez and get the mega fight he has dreamt about for so long. If the featherweight division doesn’t answer his call, expect Russell to pack on more muscle, and chase lucrative opportunities in a new division.