GARY RUSSELL SR: "GARY HAS A GREAT PUNCH...I'M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO FIGHTING EITHER OR"
By Percy Crawford | April 03, 2014
GARY RUSSELL SR:
"I don't think that they really have nobody to really prepare someone for my son. Where they gonna find that kind of speed? You can probably find some fighters with some pop, but Gary has a great punch. This kid can really punch. And we have not even included some stuff. He's never really had to open up. In 24 fights, Gary hasn't opened up in none of them...I've seen bits of Jhonny Gonzales. I have never seen Lomachenko fight. He fought on TV the other day and I didn't even watch it. Gary hasn't watched it. I'm assuming Al would send us some footage of Jhonny Gonzales if we were gonna get it on with him. I'm really looking forward to fighting either or," stated Garry Russell Sr., father and trainer of undefeated super featherweight Gary Russell Jr., as he talked about their future plans and much more. Check it out!
PC: After our first interview, it seems like a lot of fans feel that Lomachenko and your son Gary Jr. is a fight that should be made. What do you think of Lomachenko as an opponent?
GRS: I think he is an average boxer and I think it's a little premature for him to be out there fighting on that big stage, even though he did go the distance and he probably won a couple of rounds, but once again, I don't think it's fair that they put him in the situation to fight for a title not once, but twice.
PC: Do you think it's even realistic for that fight to happen with the cold war going on in boxing?
GRS: I think the politics rob the sport because it dictates...it will be hard-pressed for us to fight a Top Rank fighter. The position we are in makes it a difficult situation. He's the mandatory #1 and that particular belt is on the other side.
PC: Speaking with Lil' Gary, he says he wants Abner Mares or Jhonny Gonzales or any of those guys. Is that the type of fight you guys are looking at next?
GRS: Actually man, we hear Gonzales is set to fight someone in May, so we gotta see if that fight is going to happen right now unless the powers that be drops that fight and makes it happen. Like I said, the sport is becoming so corrupt, and it's always been that way. People always have said the worst part about boxing is the politics and trying to get a fair shake. I don't want to send my kid out there to look to knock folks out to get a fair shake. I don't think that they really have nobody to really prepare someone for my son. Where they gonna find that kind of speed? You can probably find some fighters with some pop, but Gary has a great punch. This kid can really punch. And we have not even included some stuff. He's never really had to open up. In 24 fights, Gary hasn't opened up in none of them. The most they have seen in Gary is when he broke his hand and he had to box with one hand. They don't know how he can go from freestyle, back stroke to breast stroke and incorporate different intensity levels. They haven't seen that yet. They haven't seen him straight up box; get on his toes just move and box. It's hard to prepare for that.
PC: What are you doing with him right now? Do you have him in the gym staying in shape or just letting him take it easy right now?
GRS: We always in the gym. If any one asks them, "Son, what are you doing," they always say, "In the gym training," and that's year round. See, where we come from, man, you gotta keep your kids active. They can get caught up in stuff. We are a real close-knit family and we are all in the gym together every night, sometimes two times a day. By the time that they finish at the gym, they ready to go home, eat, and go to bed and get ready for school the next day.
PC: That's that old school stuff.
GRS: Absolutely! And they getting much better with the sport. They are in the Golden Glove finals this Saturday; two of Gary Jr.'s brothers, Antonio and Antuanne, both just won to go to the semifinals. So they go to the local finals. Antonio won big and Antuanne, my 17 year old, he got a stoppage. He knocked the kid flat out. So we really pushing, keeping the family tradition moving. They are in the gym every night looking at Gary Jr. and how he hits the bag and uses his speed and they emulate the things he's doing, but still maintain their own personality and the way they do things.
PC: All of your kids are southpaws, right?
GRS: All of them are southpaws but one. My oldest son outside of wedlock, Gary Jones, is orthodox.
PC: I have heard a lot about Gary Allen. How is he doing?
GRS: Gary Allen is doing good, man. Allen's only drawback is his weight. He likes to eat, so if he's fighting at 152, he might come in overweight a little bit. Allen's biggest enemy is himself. He doesn't have self discipline. He wanna love the sport, but he also wants to love the food. And unfortunately, you can't do both. Allen doesn't lose to nobody; he lose to himself for the most part. He's also accident prone a great deal. And what I mean by that is, he was supposed to fight in the Golden Gloves and I think about 2 weeks before we started, he was at a gas station in another part of town and two guys walked up on him to rob him. One guy had a gun and Allen clipped him with a left hand and knocked the guy out. The other guy ran. But he hit the guy he knocked out in the mouth and ripped his hand open and broke his knuckle in the process. It can be rough here in D.C. man, I'm telling you. It's rough all around the world now.
PC: I have to ask you the story behind naming all of your kids Gary. How did that happen?
GRS: Actually, it just happened that way. When my wife and I first got married, seems like every time we attempted to have kids, there was always problems. She had miscarriages or there was just always a problem. So what we said is, if we have a girl, we'll name it after her and if we have a boy, we will name it after me (laughing). So she had a boy and we named it Gary. She wanted a girl and we tried for a girl and we had another boy. So we were looking for a girl at this point and we had Allen, and the next one came and we just followed suit. We just gave them all different middle names, and that's how that went.
PC: So you're pretty much waiting for the word on Gary Jr. and you have two of your other sons in the Golden Gloves finals. You're a busy man right now.
GRS: I'm excited about the Golden Gloves. My 17 year old is fighting at 141 and I don't wanna put pressure on him, but it's kind of important to me that we set a precedent. There has been no 4 brothers in history to all 4 have won the National Golden Gloves Championships, so we are definitely shooting for that mark with him and Antuanne.
PC: Gary Jr. told me he don't watch too much boxing. Are you the same way? Do you not really watch too much boxing outside of your sons?
GRS: Not really. I've seen bits of Jhonny Gonzales. I have never seen Lomachenko fight. He fought on TV the other day and I didn't even watch it. Gary hasn't watched it. I'm assuming Al would send us some footage of Jhonny Gonzales if we were gonna get it on with him. I'm really looking forward to fighting either or. At this point, it's not a lot we can do unless we decide to stay domicile and sit back and do nothing. I don't know how it works. Unless Gary says, "I don't play the politics and I don't agree with what you are doing; we not gonna fight Lomachenko," so if he chooses not to fight Lomachenko, who will they get to fight him for that vacant title? The #2, the #3, the #4 or #5. I wonder, and if that's the case and they gonna make that happen, it's gonna make him the number one contender either way, absolutely.
PC: Is he comfortable at 126 or you think he will move up soon?
GRS: Gary can definitely make the weight. Like I say, one thing for certain and two things for sure, when most people are jobbing after their fight and partying, that's not in him. He don't do that clubbing and partying. We might go out to the bowling alley and do family activities. We are a family unit and for the most part, we are in the gym every day. Normally, we will be campaigning at 26, give or take a pound. We come in at 27 sometimes, but if we come into a championship fight, of course we gotta be dead on the money. We can make that; that's not a problem. We got plenty of time we can get that. One time we had one fight since he turned pro, I don't think it was a lot of understanding by our management team how certain states have different criteria concerning weight. Most states is 26, give or take a pound. Well, in this state we were in, they said "Nah we don't do that we gotta be dead on." so they wanted to take 15 to 20% of his purse. I said man we will be back. We were 127. We walked around the corner and let him use the bathroom and spit a couple of times, we came back and hit the scale at 26. He got mad behind that. He looked at the guy he had to fight and he said, "I'm really gonna bust your ass now."
