"We are actually the mandatory for the WBO, and for the WBA, you got Jhonny Gonzales, who right now Golden Boy is acting as promoter for him. But we not the mandatory. We are ranked #3. So it makes good business sense to them to put us on to fight their man so they can control the finances and everything. We will fight whoever, but it's gotta make sense, man. It's slaving. You got Showtime and you got Top Rank. They are not gonna negotiate with one another because they at war, so that hinders a lot of the fights you want," stated Gary 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: How are you doing, Big Gary?
GRS: I'm holding on, man. I'm dealing with the sugar and the high blood pressure, but we trying to get that stuff right, eat right, and take my medicine.
PC: I think all of your sons fight, but we will stick with the one who is already a professional. There is a lot of talk about what should be done with the WBO and WBC titles. What would you like to see happen?
GRS: The way I see it, man, we are the mandatory in the WBO. We been the mandatory since Salido fought Cruz, so they stepped around us. We were told there was no representation for the meeting, Golden Boy or Al, no one spoke up, so they passed. So we were the mandatory for the next fight. So then he fights Lomachenko, but Salido couldn't make weight, so he lost the title on the scales. So now they want us to fight Lomachenko for the title, and my thing is, what's the justification in that? We will fight whoever, but what is the justification? He lost to Salido. "Well, Salido was overweight." I understand that, and if he would have beat Salido, he would have walked away with the title. He got paid to go through with it, so he took the money, you know what I'm saying? So here we go with the double standards because you pay money to the sanctioning bodies and I don't think it's fair. This is the problem; a lot of people who really don't know how this business is rocking. They don't really know what type of stuff is going on. He fought, his opponent was overweight, so if he wins, the title is his, but he fought anyway and lost. He didn't have to fight him. He took the money. If he would have knocked him out, guess what! He would have took the belt. There would have been no argument.
PC: Does it bother you that people feel your son is the one avoiding these types of challenges?
GRS: No, it doesn't. I'm beginning to realize, man, it's a business. And the people will always have criticism and an opinion. And all of the people with opinions are irrelevant to what's going on. When it's all over and done, these same people find somebody else to criticize and something to hype about. They are not putting themselves on the line. I said to Gary this is a temporary job. He is 24-0 and the knockouts are a bonus. He hasn't lost a round in none of his fights as a pro, so I let them talk because they haven't even seen him in first or second gear. He has been in cruise control. So it doesn't matter what they say. What bothers me is the true politics of the business, man. It's like going to a doctor to get a colon exam. You want to find the doctor with the smallest finger, but you gonna get hit either way you go.
PC: It seems like the network wars and the promotional wars are starting to leave a lot on the table in the fight game right now.
GRS: Ah man, it's terrible, man. The bad thing about it, the fighters are getting paid pretty nice salaries, but they not getting paid their just. They are not getting paid what they should be getting paid. The promoters and managers are making a ton of dough, man, off of these guys. They might give a million dollars out and the fighters feel like, "Oh man, I got a million dollars. I'm a millionaire. I'm there." But between the promoters and managers, they done broke up $5 or $6 million between the two of them.
PC: Do you have a preference to who you guys fight for these titles or does it not matter?
GRS: We are actually the mandatory for the WBO, and for the WBA, you got Jhonny Gonzales, who right now Golden Boy is acting as promoter for him. But we not the mandatory. We are ranked #3. So it makes good business sense to them to put us on to fight their man so they can control the finances and everything. We will fight whoever, but it's gotta make sense, man. It's slaving. You got Showtime and you got Top Rank. They are not gonna negotiate with one another because they at war, so that hinders a lot of the fights you want. Now we got a situation where the belt we are mandatory for is on the opposite side of Showtime. It's a situation where we are the mandatory with no ties to either network. The smarter move would be to go get that vacant belt and bring it over. But what happens, you get the big money on the other side, Top Rank and Bob Arum, and they say we gotta keep this john. We gotta keep it. He will go to the President of the WBO and say, "Man, look here, you need to give my man another shot," because he want to keep it in his stable. The game is crazy, man.
PC: What was your take on Lomachenko fighting for the title after just one pro bout?
GRS: I think it was disrespectful to boxing. I thought it was disrespectful to #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and all the way up to 15. These guys been fighting and they are ranked in the top 15 and this guy with no pro experience, 1 pro fight, and they put him in a spot. So he bypasses all of the rest of them guys to fight for a title off of his amateur accolades. We not dealing with the amateurs now. Where does that happen? Only in America. That's some old Don King stuff. If you got some money, you can sway the people. If you look at it, they move people where they want; puppet masters. A guy with no pro experience who hasn't paid his pro dues and they stuck him in front of everybody else to fight for a title. What does that say for that organization that allowed that? Then the question is raised, if they can do that, what can they do with the judges? They don't want to talk about that, but it's a true deal. If I could take a nobody and jump him up here and put him up for a title, fuck everybody else, I could probably grease somebody's palm and make sure that certain guys win.
PC: When would you like to see Gary fight again?
GRS: The talk was we were supposed to be fighting on the 19th in DC on the undercard of Bernard Hopkins. My feelings were we shouldn't be on the undercard of Bernard. Bernard is a good fighter and a novelty fighter and a good dude. I know Bernard. He's a good dude, but I feel we should get on our own card and headline our own card. It's smart business because the card is for Bernard. Man, I'm gonna tell you, and this is going off track and I know I'm shaking the tree, and really I don't care. I'm not out there fighting. At the end of the day, you gotta go out there and beat my son and I don't think nobody just gonna beat him. On any given night, dude can get lucky and hit you and put you down, but for somebody to go mano y mano with him, he gonna blow them out because it's not the style or the speed, it's defense and offense all combined. You have to be able to change your style up and be creative. He has that mindset of that type of complete fighter. So I'm not worried about it when I say things like this because I know I might shake the tree, but what I was about to say is, perfect example, Danny Garcia fighting Matthysse on the undercard of Floyd for Mexican independence Day. Everybody gonna watch that joint and I thought that was a main event fight by itself. So of course with the money they made off of that fight, which broke the record, they gonna give that money to Floyd and Canelo. So Danny is gonna get a piece of the money, but if he would have fought the same holiday and he was the main event, he would have made more money. But to the powers that be, it's more favorable to them to make this fight on that card because Floyd gotta get his. But the amount that was reported that Floyd got was a big discrepancy to how much money they made.
PC: I appreciate your time and your honesty, and save my number and hit me up anytime. Best of luck to you and your sons in that boxing ring.
GRS: Thank you. I got you, baby!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]