By Dan Ambrose: It looks like unbeaten featherweight contender Gary Russell Jr’s win over 2nd tier fighter Christopher Perez (23-2, 14 KO’s) has gone to Russell Jr’s head because he’s calling out Juan Manuel Lopez, and thinks he can beat Yuriorkis Gamboa. Not only that, he sees WBO super featherweight champion Adrien Broner as a flawed fighter.
Speaking with esnewsreporting.com after his win tonight, Russell Jr. said “He [Gamboa] has a lot of kinks in his armor. Once I compete against him, I will exploit.”
When asked if he thought he could beat Gamboa, Russell Jr. said “Most definitely.”
Russell Jr. wasn’t done, however. He said this about Adrien Broner: “He’s basically one dimensional. A lot of kinks in his armor…He’s not fundamentally sound. I feel these are places I can take advantage of.”
I think Russell Jr. is a good fighter, but I don’t see him as being in the same league as Gamboa or Broner or even Lopez for that matter. Gamboa and Broner are too big, too strong and too sound fundamentally for Russell Jr. It is interesting that Russell Jr. brings up the phrase fundamentally sound, because he really lacks head movement, as well as foot movement as well. Russell Jr. plods when he fights, and doesn’t seem capable of moving quickly with his feet.
Russell Jr’s lack of head movement is also something that will cause him a lot of problems when he stops fighting the guys that are being fed to him by his promoter. Right now, Russell Jr. is still being spoon fed beatable opposition. Once he moves up against the better fighter his flaws are going to get him into a lot of trouble. I personally think Broner and Gamboa would have an easy time knocking Russell Jr. out. I do think Russell Jr. is an exciting gatekeeper type fighter, but as long as Lopez, Broner, Gamboa and Orlando Salido are around, Russell Jr. won’t have a place unless it’s one of those interim titles that he picks up, which really has little meaning.
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