"We deal with Al Haymon since Gary’s career and Antuanne hasn’t signed a contract. He’s basically a free agent. I would like to make that clear. He’s not signed to a promotional company," stated world-class trainer Gary Russell Sr., who had a lot to say about the future of his son's careers. Check it out!
PC: You recently had all 3 of your sons fight. All 3 of them were successful with knockout wins. How do you feel about the way that they performed?
GRS: I think they did what they had to do. I’ll start from the oldest down; “Lil” Gary, he had a great strategy going in. I knew the kid was going to be right there in our face. My main concern was him being drugged up, which I don’t know how to send you a picture, but if you see the urinalysis after the fight and you see this guy’s urine, you’re going to say, “What the hell?” When you see this guy’s urine, you will see that all of my suspicions were valid. The way I see it, the guy was going to actually get hurt because he was on them enhancers to keep him going, but it didn’t prevent the damage that was being done to him. He was taking some hard head shots. I think that Antonio fought good. I give him a B+. Even though he stopped his opponent, I think he waited a little too long to set him up to get him out. But his punching ability is unbelievable. We still gotta work a little bit on his defense and some of his creativity. Antuanne’s fight was so fast, he was super amped. He just destroyed the boy.
PC: Did you pretty much get everything you were looking for from all of them?
GRS: Pretty much! I think that in the next fight, I would like to see Antuanne go a few more rounds to really acclimate into the pros. I’m a little disappointed to say the least about Antuanne because of his Olympic pedigree. And I’m not saying this in a biased sense or because of nepotism; the fact is Antuanne beat the guy that won the Gold Medal. They robbed him. He beat him. He clearly beat him. You can’t find nobody to say that that guy beat Antuanne. And coming home, it’s been kind of bittersweet. We deal with Al Haymon since Gary’s career and Antuanne hasn’t signed a contract. He’s basically a free agent. I would like to make that clear. He’s not signed to a promotional company.
PC: Are you in search of a promotional deal for just Antuanne or all 3 of your sons?
GRS: I’m looking for a deal pretty much with “Tonio” and Antuanne.
PC: So, just to be clear, you’re not unhappy with your kid’s situation, you’re just preparing for the future?
GRS: Exactly! I mean there are questionable things that occur. I would love to see the press be a lot more grander with Jr. I would love the opportunity for us to deal with pay-per-views. You look at these weight classes, it’s pretty much the same thing with Floyd. Now it’s become a circus with Floyd fighting Conor McGregor and all of this. Before that, Floyd didn’t really make money until he fought different pugilists from different countries. He needed that, not to define how good he was, but to cash in. I think the same holds true for Lil Gary. You look at the people who are in his weight class who have belts on the other side, all of them come from different countries with the support of boxing fans; Santa Cruz, Lee Selby, and Carl Frampton. You have guys like that out there. Boxing is seasonal, like everything else. You have your seasons and your time in boxing. Gary just had a birthday and, like I say, 3 more years and that might be it; 4 more fights. We want to maximize on the finance side and make sure we do the proper business investments to sustain him and his kids down the road.
PC: When you see 4 top guys like Robert Guerrero, Wladimir Klitschko, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Timothy Bradley all retire over the span of 2 weeks, the fact that you have 3 sons who are actively fighting right now, that has to be alarming to you and something that you pay close attention to.
GRS: Absolutely! The thing about it is I’m trying to make the proper moves with all of them. I think we get a lot of criticism as far as moving Gary slow, but you have to look at it like this, you have to protect your investments. You can get all of the material things in the world, but the highest commodity that you can have, at least in my estimation, is my kids. That’s my namesake. You gotta look out for yours regardless of what someone says. Like you said, a lot of these guys have retired and that’s because their season is up. I had a tree in my front yard. Lightning struck it and it died. But when that tree was there, we would sit out and we would talk on the porch and I would tell Gary, “Look at that tree, man. It is so full; the leaves cover it because it’s the season for it. But guess what, come fall, all of them leaves are going to fall and be on the ground and that tree will be bare.” That’s how this boxing business is. You have to seize and take advantage while everything is in full blossom. Because when your season is over, it’s over. Some people stay around much too long thinking they can recapture their youth. That makes for a bad time. I see a lot of fighters, and I’m not going to name any names, but a lot of fighters who have impaired speech and they still talking about wanting to fight. “I can get back in there.” That’s because they don’t have sound business investments and they didn’t look at the future. They looked at what was current and you can’t do that. This is the only business, man, where you don’t have a retirement fund. When it’s done, it’s done. You know, one of the baddest men on the planet was Mike Tyson. How often do you hear boxing people talk about Mike Tyson? His season is over and his name died with the times. I’m pretty sure half of the guys who have retired, their old managers or promoters can’t even make audiences with these guys anymore. They are done with you. You are used up.
PC: Would you like to see all of them back in the ring before the year is over? Is anything in the works?
GRS: Well, absolutely! I think Gary has something coming up in November and “Tonio” and Antuanne are supoposed to fight on September 8th in L.A.
PC: So it was right back to the gym for you guys.
GRS: Man, we stay in the gym.
PC: You can’t go back to a place you don’t leave, huh?
GRS: Exactly! You know, I tell the kids, I use a lot of metaphors, being sharp and being on point in boxing is like...you have to keep that sharpness going. It’s like being in bed and the pillow and everything is in the perfect position, then you gotta go to the bathroom. You walk that hall, you cut that light on, aim, fire, come out, cut the light off and get back in bed, but you don’t find that same position. You gotta find one that’s comfortable. So in order to alleviate that, stay your butt in the gym.
BE SURE TO CHECK BACK SOON FOR MUCH MORE WITH WORLD-CLASS TRAINER GARY RUSSELL SR.
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