Fighting’s his job, but not an end-all, be-all

WBC champ Russell has big plans outside ring

WASHINGTON — Gary Russell Jr. has devoted his life to boxing, spending countless hours since childhood in the gym refining his craft to become a world champion.

Still, for as meticulous as the 31-yearold featherweight is in his preparation for each fight, Russell remains unapologetic in treating the sport largely as a means to financial stability rather than a way of life.

“I’m a fighter, but a lot of people don’t know Mr. Gary Russell Jr. outside the sport of boxing,” he said last week while taking a break from training near his home in Capitol Heights.

The reigning World Boxing Council champion defended his title Saturday against mandatory challenger Tugstsogt Nyambayar at PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Russell rattled off his priorities before boxing. The extensive list begins with his six children and wife of eight years, all of whom Russell makes certain to spend ample time with when he’s in training camp.

He even finds time to offer relationship advice to his father and trainer, Gary Sr., who also trains younger brothers Gary Antuanne Russell and Gary Antonio Russell. Both scheduled to fight before Gary Jr.’s main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card that was televised on Showtime.

During weekdays while training Gary Jr. and his other sons, Gary Sr. often would come home as his wife was leaving. Then on the weekends, she would attend church functions, and Gary Sr. would stay home to prepare meals for the children.

“So we kept missing, and it causes friction,” Gary Sr. said while overseeing his firstborn’s workout. “But Shorty finds time for his wife, his kids.

“He’ll take all the phones, cut the TVs off, and they’ll just sit on the floor and play. It’s a balance. He’s taught me a lot just within the last couple of weeks about how to work with your wife.”

For all his wisdom in helping his parents stay properly connected, Gary Jr. has no plans to become a marriage counselor when he retires from boxing. He has, however, given plenty of thought to his future beyond the sport.

Philanthropy, Russell indicated, is where he will concentrate his professional efforts, specifically in the community connected to his birthplace and childhood home in the nation’s capital.

Russell remembers growing up with constant reminders of why the District became infamous as America’s “murder capital,” with, for instance, close to 500 homicides in 1991. His mission well beyond boxing is to help ensure those statistics never approach such levels again, perhaps by starting a nonprofit based out of Washington.

“A lot of my good friends, people I went to school with, that I grew up with, they’re locked up, they’re dead or they’re out here on the corners selling drugs,” Russell said. “[They’re] just not in the best position.

“I feel like I’m in the position where I want to give people a second chance at life.”

Russell’s introspection comes as he admits to growing disenchantment with the politics frequently associated with boxing. He and his team contend they have been prevented from securing high-profile opponents befitting a champion of his stature.

As a result, by design Russell (30-1, 18 knockouts) hasn’t fought more than once in a year since 2014, facing mandatories such as Nyambayar (11-0, nine KOs) to keep his belt. A byproduct of the limited activity has been preserving his body and mind — not that Russell gets hit often anyhow — and providing extended periods for activities other than his job.

Russell has said he even would consider vacating his belt to move up in weight to draw more compelling opponents.

Among the fighters Russell would gladly face: Leo Santa Cruz, the World Boxing Association champion at 130 pounds; Gervonta “Tank” Davis, the WBA lightweight champion from Baltimore; and Vasiliy Lomachenko, on the short list for top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

The only loss of Russell’s career came against Lomachenko via majority decision on June 21, 2014, when Lomachenko was fighting at 126 pounds. He’s currently the WBA, WBC and World Boxing Organization champion at 135 pounds.

“The big purses that we know are out there to be made, for some reason they don’t want to make them,” Gary Russell Sr. said. “I think of a lot is, I would say, favoritism.

“You’ve got other people who are pulling the strings, and if they let their other pugilists lose, then they lose that financial string. So they want to protect what they think is more valuable on that side as opposed to letting them fight.”