‘Hitman’ signs 3-year contract with Real Deal
KEMAHL ‘THE Hitman’ Russell has officially put pen to paper on a three-year contract with Real Deal Boxing, with the aim of getting more matches booked in the near future.
Real Deal Boxing is headed by fourtime World Heavyweight champion Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield and, as part of the terms of the contract, Russell will be booked in six fights per year.
“That would be very good for any boxer, because of activity,” he said. “Activity means everything, you know. When you’re inactive, it causes ring rust (errors and sharpness issues because of time spent away from competition). You can spar a thousand rounds in the gym but fighting is totally different – the lights, the crowd, everything.”
Russell says that he is eager to be partnering with Holyfield, whom he enjoyed watching fight on television as a child.
“It’s a dream come true. I’ve been watching him box from a young age and I didn’t know anything about boxing at the time, but knowing that he sees potential in me and signed me to his company means a lot. It shows that Jamaican boxers do have the talent to match up to the rest of the world.”
DEAL TOOK TIME
The deal had been in the works for a number of weeks, but had delays because of logistical issues.
Russell’s manager, Leiza-Mae Keane, said the promotion had been scouting her client for some time before the move.
“They were looking at him from January and they had waited a bit just to kinda see what Kemahl’s potential was. After his last fight, they decided that it was time for him to be signed and they signed a contract on Monday.”
Russell is already booked for his first title fight under the promotion, as he will face American Ian ‘The General’ Green for the Junior North American Boxing Federation (NABF) Middleweight title at the Resorts World Casino in New York on September 9. Keane said that how
Russell performs in this bout will be pivotal to how he is booked afterwards.
“How Kemahl wins this fight is what will determine how the promoter will move forward with him as well,” she said. “It would kind of tell us exactly where Kemahl is. Green had two upsets on television and he has always wanted to fight Kemahl, so they’re going for it and we’re ready for that right now.”
When asked if Russell’s relationship
with Uprising promotions, whom he signed with early last year is over, Keane said: “Absolutely not! Uprising is actually in a co-promotional situation with Real Deal Boxing. Uprising still has everything to do with Kemahl, but Evander Holyfield will be the one making the decisions as to the fights and placing him forward.”
NICHOLAS ‘THE Axeman’ Walters, whose once spectacular boxing career is now on life support, has suffered another setback. His fight against Mexican Arturo Santos Reyes scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been cancelled because Walters reported sick over the weekend. Walters, who is the former World Boxing Association featherweight Super Champion, has not fought since his shocking loss to Vasyl Lomachenko last November 26.
In that fight, which was for Lomachenko’s World Boxing Organisation super featherweight title, Walters was completely outclassed and retired in Round Seven. He received a lot of negative press for the way in which he performed that night, but vowed to return and fight the way he used to when he became a world champion. He has a great 26-1-1 record, but the way he lost that November night caused him to lose a lot of his fans.
He is now on the comeback trail, and the fight that was scheduled for tomorrow was his first step up the redemption ladder. He has slipped once more, however, and the climb back is now that much more difficult. When he spoke with The Gleaner yesterday, he said that he was very disappointed that the fight had to be cancelled and that this was because he caught a bad cold last week and had a fever.
‘REALLY CONCERNED’
“All plans were in place for me to leave Panama on Tuesday for Nebraska with my trainer, Celso Chavez, but unfortunately, I picked up something from my son, O’Brien, who became ill last week,” he told The Gleaner. “He had a bad cold, a fever, and was coughing a lot, so we had to take him to the doctor. I then picked up something. I, too, had a bad cold, was doing a lot of coughing too, and had to stop training. I was really concerned, as I was in the final stages of my training. I was unable to run for a few days, my gym work was curtailed, and I was therefore not in condition for such an important fight, so I called Top Rank and told them what was happening. After discussions, it was agreed that the fight would be cancelled.”
It would without a doubt have been one of the most important fights of his career, he said, so the decision had to be taken to cancel for now, since he would not be 100 per cent fit. The hope is that he will be able to fight again in November or December, but this will depend on the schedule of his promoter Top Rank. The fight card on which he should have appeared was a television event, with a world title fight between WBO champion Terence Crawford and Julius Indongo as the feature.
What it will also mean for Walters is that it will be at least a year between fights for him, and this is never a good thing for a boxer.
I was unable to run for a few days, my gym work was curtailed, and I was therefore not in condition for such an important fight ...