By Chris Williams: Light welterweight prospect Gary Antuanne Russell (15-0, 15 KOs) says he’s targeting the four titles currently held by undisputed 140-lb champion Josh Taylor following his tenth round knockout win over former WBC champion Viktor Postol (31-4, 12 KOs) last Saturday night at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Paradise, Nevada.
The 2016 U.S olympian Russell, 25, hurt Postol with a hard left hand in the tenth and then finished him with a flurry of shots that forced referee Mike Ortega to step in and halt the contest.
Postol was still on his feet, but he was taking shots and it was a good move on Ortega’s part to stop the fight. The time of the storage was at 2:31 of round 10.
At the time of the stoppage, Russell was ahead on the scorecards by the scores 89-82, 89-82, and 88-83.
The unbeaten Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) is expected to vacate his IBF, WBA, WBC & WBO light welterweight titles before going up to 147 to campaign in that weight division.
Taylor fought last Saturday night, winning a controversial 12 round split decision over Jack Catterall in Glasgow, Scotland.
After their fight, Taylor said he was moving up, blaming his less than stellar performance on the weight cut to get down to 140.
In fairness to 38-year-old Postol, he hadn’t fought in eighteen months since his loss to former WBC/WBO 140-lb champion Jose Ramirez in August 2020.
With that amount of time out of the ring, Postol didn’t perform at the level that he’d shown throughout his 15-year professional career. Of course, a large part of why Postol fought like we’d seen from him in the past had to do with Russell.
He forced the lanky 5’11” Postol to fight on the inside by staying close to him, and he lacked the skills to battle in that type of contest.
Antuanne Russell wants to clean up 140 division
“I tell people that I’m definitely a superstar,” said Gary Antuanne Russell to Fighthype after his win over Postol. “Based on how the fight went, I’m glad I got the victory.
“Definitely,” Russell Jr when asked if he wants to fight Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall. “I’m looking forward to cleaning the 140 division. The highest pinnacle I can go is to get all the belts. That’s the highest pinnacle I can go as far as a journey for me.
“Me and my camp are going to keep knocking at it until we get there. As far as opponents, am I looking for anyone specifically, not at all. If they’ve got a mandatory in a step-up match, I’m taking it.
“They got to have the credentials, though. If they’re who I have to fight to go to the next level, that’s who it’s going to be. We’re going to take it and run with it because like I said, our journey is one thing and that’s obtaining all the belts. Right now, Josh Taylor got it.
“I’m not Nostradamus. I’ve just got a goal and my goal is to get all the belts. Right now, Josh Taylor has them,” said Russell.
Antuanne has a long road ahead of him before he’ll be given a chance to fight for one of Taylor’s soon-to-be vacated belts. Russell needs to beat some of the top contenders to get pushed to the top five spots at 140, so he can fight for a world title.
Fighters Russell needs to target:
- Jose Zepeda
- Regis Prograis
- Jose Ramirez
- Subrial Matias
- Arnold Barboza Jr
- Shakhram Giyasov
- Shohjahon Ergashev
Fighting Crawford not far-fetched
“it’s not far-fetched,” said Antuanne Russell when asked about the possibility of him fighting Terence Crawford in the future. “When you’re dealing with the rankings and the sanctioning bodies, you will deal with people going up, coming down, dealing with catch weights.
“Sometimes it’s to get a notch on your belt and sometimes it’s to prove something to the fans. Me specifically, I’m going with who I need to go with as far as me gaining credentials. I’m going on the road to get credentials to get the titles.
“If you’re talking about me fighting a specific opponent, that’s fine. That’s hypothetical. If you’re talking about me going in the right direction, we’re looking at rankings, we’re looking at stats, and we’re looking at the way boxing is structured. We’re going that route.
“All these other fighters you guys want to see me fight, if they’re a high-caliber fighter, let’s make it happen. Maybe later on down the road it could possibly be a pay-per-view fight, you never know.
“We can keep this sport going and make money, a lot of money,” Antuanne Russell said.
It’s not likely that Russell will be given a chance to fight Terence Crawford anytime soon if ever because he’s not going to fight a young lion from the 140-lb division.
The 34-year-old Crawford’s advanced age suggests that he only has a short window of time remaining before he hangs up his gloves, and it’s not feasible to expect him to give Antuanne a chance for a fight before he retires.
It wasn’t what Postol did
“It was nothing that he did. It was stuff that I didn’t do,” said Russell on his fight with the 38-year-old Postol. “He didn’t bring nothing to this ring that I’ve never seen before.
“I’ve been an Olympian. I got robbed in the Olympics in 2016, I should have been a gold medalist, but politics happened. Politics are one major thing that runs this sport sometimes.
“They took my gold away from me and that was the highest pinnacle I got to in as an amateur. I didn’t get the nod, so I decided to take a journey to professional.
“In the amateurs and Olympic games, I saw all there was to see. So I can’t do nothing but grow off that. I saw many different styles. It wouldn’t be anything new in this boxing ring that I haven’t seen before,” said Russell.
“Honestly, I’m my own worst critic, man. I give myself a D+. My father gives me a B,” continued Antuanne Russell. “We got a stoppage and that had never been done,” Russell said.
Antuanne beat Postol more impressively
“Josh Taylor, he became victorious against him, but they didn’t do it in the fashion that I did it,” Antuanne said of his stoppage victory over Postol. “That’s a statement, that’s a mark in my journey and my career, so I’m proud of that. There’s more to it than that. We strive for excellence.
“I could have been slipping a little bit more, closing the distance a little bit more, a lot easier instead of reaching,” Russell Jr. said on his match against the experienced Viktor Postol. “It could have been over in five if I had executed the right stuff. I’m sad that it took me to the tenth round to execute it.
“I could have done that in the third round or fourth round to apply pressure the correct way. I was gunshy and I wasn’t executing in the early rounds. I was seeing it but I wasn’t firing. Like I said, he [Postol], is a class-A fighter, you can’t take nothing away from him.
“I got a little mouse over my eye, but that comes from the sport. That has nothing to do with my muscles and my legs or my brain. It’s just scar tissue.
“When I get home, I’m just going to focus on sharpening my craft,” Russell Jr. said on wanting to improve.
