Via Ken Hissner: This coming Saturday on Showtime Championship Boxing WBC World Featherweight champion Gary “Mr.” Russell, Jr. will make his sixth title defense against the undefeated Filipino Mark Magsayo at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This is a Tom Brown event (TGB Promotion).
Russell is one of three active brothers in the family, while the other two are undefeated. Gary Antonio Russell is the 2013 National Golden Glove Champion. As a pro, Russell is 19-0 with 12 stops. In his final match on November 17, 2021, he won a decisive majority against Alexandro “Peque” Santiago, 24-3-5 (13), in Tijuana, Mexico, over ten innings, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In his previous match, Russell faced off against one of the top 9 WBA contenders, Emmanuel Rodriguez, 19-2; After only 0:16 seconds, an accidental headbutt made Rodriguez unable to continue. This took place at the Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, CA, in August.
In the previous fight, Russell’s fight also ended with an accidental headbutt in the seventh round even though it happened in the fifth round. England led with a score of 59-55 twice and 58-56 against Dominican Juan Carlos Payano, 21-5, out of Miami, Florida.
Russell is currently ranked 2nd in the WBA and 9th in the IBF. He turned pro in January 2015, winning his first six games defeating Rudolph Hedge, 10-3-3, in six rounds at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center in Bethlehem, PA. In his twelfth game in August 2018, he scored a stunning first-round knockout goal against Nick Otieno, 31-14, at the Minneapolis Armory, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Russell then continued with Jose Maria Cardenas’ sixth-round matchup, 16-3, at Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York.
The third active Russell was Gary Antuanne Russell, who represented the United States at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He won his first two matches before losing 2-1 to Fazliddin Gailbnazarov, of Uzbekistan, who went on to win the Gold Medal. The latter is now 9-1 as a pro.
Russell won 3/4 against current IBF first-place competitor Jaron “Boots” Ennis. He turned pro in May 2017, scoring his ninth straight goal to beat Marcos “Bombardero” Mojica of Nicaragua, 16-3-2, in four innings at Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York.
Two games later, Russell scored his big first-round goal against Luis Ronaldo “Loco” Castillo of Mexico, 20-4, at the Rabobank Theater in Bakersfield, CA. In his final game, he stopped Puerto Rico’s Jovanie “El Lobito” Santiago, 14-1-1, at the end of six rounds at Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, CA, in September. 5 in 2021. This is his 14 consecutive games stop.
Returning to Showtime this Saturday, the gay show features a rematch featuring Puerto Rico Subriel Matias, 17-1 with 17 saves, whose unbeaten streak came to a halt in February 2020 against Armenian opponents on Saturday Petros Ananlyan, 16-2-2, out of LA, CA.
Since Matias’ defeat, he has won two consecutive wins by injury time against a pair of opponents with a score of 18-0. In October, he stopped Malik Hawkins, after six rounds at Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. In his final match, he stopped Kazakhstan’s Batyrzhan Jukembayev from knocking Canada out for 8 rounds.
In the other 10 games, Tugstsogt “Drag King” Nyambayar of Mongolia, 12-2 (9), tries to get his pocket back after losing his final match to Sakaria “Desert Storm” Lukas of Nambia, 25-1 (17) , more than ten innings.
The rest of the bottom cards are stacked with young talent in round eight being bantamweight superman Abimael Ortiz, 9-1-1 (5), of Puerto Rico, facing Ryan “Stone” Lee Allen, 10-5 -1, of Las Vegas, Nevada.
There will be three six-round matches against LeShawn “Lightning” Rodriguez, 12-0 (9), in Port Jefferson, New York, against Sixto Suazo, 9-2-1 (7), of Atlanta, Georgia. Philadelphia’s Featherweight Rasheen Brown, 11-0 (7), vs Katsuma “El Cuete Japonecito” Akitsugi of Japan, 7-0 (1), outside Hollywood, CA.
In the opening match, the son of former heavyweight champion Evander “Real Deal” Holyfield was super heavyweight Evan “Yung Holy” Holyfield, 8-0 (6), knockout Atlanta, GA, against Chris Rollins, 5-3 -1 (4), of Charlottesville, VA.
