Gary Russell Jr. called into BoxingInsider Radio this week and talked Gervonta Davis with Richardson Hitchens, his incident with Leo Santa Cruz’s father, and gives his opinion on Deontay Wilder vs Luis Ortiz. BoxingInsider Radio can be heard on Spotify, iTunes, and Boxinginsider.com.
Larry Goldberg: We have joining us on the phone, the guy with some of the quickest hands in boxing. He’s the former WBC, featherweight champion. He is the one and only Gary Russell Jr. Gary, are you there?
Gary Russell Jr: Of course. Of course. I’m here in the flesh.
Curtis Jones: Hey, Gary would it do little bro. What’s good with you?
Gary Russell Jr: Man, I’m good man. I’m grinding right now. I’m grinding right now look I’m in the gym right and we getting it done.
Curtis Jones: Yeah. I apologize for the call, we interrupting your workout. I’m blessed that you’re gracing us with your phone call right now, but that’s what’s up champ.
Gary Russell Jr: Come on man. We got to give back. We got to.
Curtis Jones: Definitely, definitely. Yo Gary, what’s coming up for you man?
Gary Russell Jr: Well as of now we got a deal with our mandatory challenges I think the guys name is ??? something like that.
Larry Goldberg: Do you know when the fight is going to be?
Gary Russell Jr: We don’t have a day. We are looking at January, sometime in January. It’s not completely set into stone, but that is the next opponent. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t be competing against him. The WBC mandated- Man, if it was up to me, I wouldn’t be fighting him. The WBC, like I said, is mandating me to fight him. If it was up to me, I’d move up to 135.
- Curtis Jones mentions to Russell that Richardson Hitchens is in the studio. Hitchens is a stablemate and good friend with Gervonta Davis who has a rivalry with Russell.
Gary Russell Jr: That’s cool. That’s cool. I’m saying he supposed to have friends and associates. It’s not like they going to take this ass whooping for him.
You know what I’m saying? I expect them to have people that genuinely support them. You know what I’m saying? Because like I say, I understand, which side he came from, I understand his background and everything, so I take my hat off to him just for him to be able to get to the point in his career in which that he is.
None of this shit is personal at all. He just came up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Richardson Hitchens: That’s a fight I want to see and that’s a fight I respect Gary for calling him out because Gary, I have a lot of respect for Gary coming up in the amateurs. Even though me and his brother fought a couple of times, he always would give me wisdom and all that. So him trying to go up and take that test. That’s something that I think it’s good for boxing.
Gary Russell Jr: Wait. Wait. Wait, say that again.
Richardson Hitchens: I said going up and you calling out Tank at 135 I think that’s something that’s good for boxing because those are the fights that fans want to see.
Gary Russell Jr: Exactly. That’s what we want. I think the fighter that’s supposed to be the best for the people and that the fans consider the best, they should fight.
As a fighter it’s a certain type of mentality that you should have. I’m an animal inside and out the ring. If somebody wants to come into my gym and they 200 pounds and they say they want to fight me, they grub the fuck up and we’re going to work.
Henry Deleon: Let me ask you a bit about a Santa Cruz’s side on this card., are you going to be tuning in to watch his fight, because I know you’ve been calling him out for a while. Have these guys given you some sort of an insight for a potential fight?
Gary Russell Jr: I mean it’s the possibility. Leo keeps saying that he got the blueprint to beat me, he said he wanted to revenge as well as in the amateurs that I gave him, but nobody is putting their name in the hat, to step in the ring. But none of them. I had the title for the last four or five years. The most prestigious…
Henry Deleon: I’ve got to ask you on Instagram, you had posted that video with his father. I mean did he say anything about that? Santa Cruz?
Gary Russell Jr: Nah, he didn’t say nothing about it. I mean, I think if he finally responded, it’s a lot of ignorant people out here in the world.
That will look at that video and take it as if I was trying to bully his dad or something like that, or I was going to cause any harm to his father. Nobody going to cause no harm to his father. That’s just the way of… It’s theatrics, we are entertainers.
Henry Deleon: Yeah, of course. And a lot of people don’t understand it, but that’s the way we promote ourselves here.
Gary Russell Jr: Right. And Leo, he responded and he said he’d known me at the amateurs, he always known me to joke around to find a laugh. He didn’t really say to much about it, but he never did say he wanted to get in the ring to fight either.
Curtis Jones: Hey, let me tell you something. I swear to God bro, I love your confidence bro. Honestly a lot of people talk a lot of smack, you know what I’m saying? But you really do back it up. One thing about you all… And I know about you, because I’ve known you for some years, I know you got a beautiful family bro. And like you all train like dogs bro. You all open up the gym and it’s wartime. You know what I’m saying? And like take that into the ring, you know what I’m saying? With them little fast hands, even though I’m a little bit faster than you though.
Gary Russell Jr: Everybody got inspirations and dreams, I understand, I understand.
Henry Deleon: Yeah. I actually have a client that has a pretty big dream actually sitting right next to me right here on my left, Larry Goldberg. So I trained him in boxing as well. And his dream… He’s seen you do a media workout at Gleason’s Gym and he saw how fast your hands were moving. He literally-
Larry Goldberg: I am not that fast.
Henry Deleon: He has labeled his speed as the Gary Russell speed. Okay. Now he’s curious to know… He doesn’t have the guts to ask you right now, but he’s curious to know how can he get his hands to move like yours?
Larry Goldberg: Get new hands.
Gary Russell: Man. To be honest with you, it’s a long time of work and effort and preparation, but just a little small shortcut. Like I said, I do everything in big gloves. We fight in eight ounces. When I spar, I spar in 20 ounce gloves, and I hit the bag, I hit the bag in 20 ounce gloves, I hit the mist in 20 ounce gloves. I do a lot of aquatic workout, a lot of resistance training-
Henry Deleon: You see Larry.
Gary Russell Jr: … resistance bands and stuff like that can kind of help with your hand speed.
Curtis Jones: Definitely a lot of… Help out with them fast twitch muscles, that’s what’s up man.
Gary Russell Jr: That’s right.
Curtis Jones: Hey, I got a question for you this Saturday, Deontay Wilder, Luis Ortiz?
Gary Russell Jr: Ugh, man. Hey look, I’m not even going to hold you all right. I’m 100% biased because Deontay, that’s a good friend of mine. Good friend of mine, we was on the Olympic team together, but I’m not going to count Ortiz out.
I’m not going to count Ortiz out. I think Deontay has the equalizer. When we was on the Olympic team, he was the least experienced person on the team. What took him over the top was his tenacity, his heart, and he can punch.
Curtis Jones: Punch is not the word.
Gary Russell Jr: Yeah he can punch. Now Ortiz, realistically, in my opinion, he’s more technically sound. I think he’s one of the most technically sound heavyweights that’s out there period.
I don’t know if age catches up to him or what, but I do know he’s trimmed down very much so, since the last fight.
Curtis Jones: That’s what’s up. We actually saw the video.
Gary Russell: Yeah he was definitely in Deon. And to be honest with you, he was in Deontay ass all the way up until, when Deontay touched.
I don’t know. I hope my man win, I was Deontay pull it through. But its fighting man, anything can happen. I don’t know.
Larry Goldberg: What is your workout today?
Gary Russell Jr: Right now I’m going to be honest with you, this is the stay busy. I feel people, man. I stay, fuck something up ready. A lot of these guys man, you only see them in the gym when they’re getting ready to compete. It’s an actual lifestyle to me.
I’m always in the gym. If me and my wife was to go out on vacation, within that vacation, I got to go jog, and I got to shadow box, I got to do something.
Curtis Jones: Pull your mouth piece out.
Gary Russell Jr: Hey, look, we don’t even wear mouth pieces in the gym. The only time I wear a mouth piece is in a fight.
I ain’t made that. That is the OG word for where I don’t remember last time I had a mouth piece on, until I actually got in the ring.
