By Jeff Aranow: WBC featherweight World champion Gary Russell Jr. (28-1, 17 KOs weighed in at 125.5 pounds on Friday for his title defense against up and comer Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr. (26-0, 14 KOs) for their fight on Saturday night on Showtime Championship Boxing at the MGM National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
By Dan Ambrose: WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. (28-1, 17 KOs) has his toughest fight ahead of him in years in defending against unbeaten number 1 contender Joseph Diaz Jr. (26-0, 13 KOs0 this Saturday night at the MGM National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
SHOWTIME Boxing will deliver three world championship fights from three countries this Saturday across two different platforms in the latest of an industry-leading offering of world class championship boxing.
Saturday’s world title bouts feature six fighters ranked in the consensus top-10 in their respective divisions. May 19 will be the seventh SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® telecast of 2018. Through Saturday, the network will have delivered 13 world championship fights through the first five months of the year. There are an additional four world title fights scheduled for June, as SHOWTIME continues an unrivaled and unprecedented run of world class boxing.
By Ian Aldous: On Saturday May 19th, Gary Russell Jr. (28-1) will defend his WBC world featherweight championship against undefeated contender, Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz (26-0), on home turf at the MGM National Harbor in Maryland. It will be part of a split-site Premier Boxing Champions broadcast, live on Showtime, that will also feature WBC world light-heavyweight champion, Adonis Stevenson defending his title against Badou Jack in Canada. Earlier this week, Russell Jr. spoke to me over the phone whilst working in the gym with his brothers (who are both fighting on the May 19th undercard).
Fighters featured on the undercard of Canelo vs. Smith today hosted a Los Angeles media workout at City of Angels Boxing ahead of their upcoming fights on September 17, 2017 at the home of the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, live on HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
As the co-main event to the mega-fight between Canelo Alvarez and Liam Smith, “King” Gabriel Rosado (23-9, 13 KOs, 1 NC) of Philadelphia, will face former world title challenger Willie “El Mongoose” Monroe, Jr. (20-2, 6 KOs) of Rochester, N.Y. in a 12-round middleweight bout. Also on the televised undercard, 2012 U.S. Olympian Joseph “Jojo” Diaz, Jr. (21-0, 12 KOs) of So. El Monte, Calif.