By Jeff Aranow: WBC World featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. (27-1, 16 KOs) will be back inside the ring next month in defending his WBC title against 32-year-old Oscar Escandon (25-2, 17 KOs) at the U.S Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. This will be Russell Jr’s second defense of his title that he won two years ago with a 4th round knockout victory over former champion Jhonny Gonzalez in March 2015.
Russell Jr. has since defended his title once in beating fringe contender Patrick Hyland by a 2nd round knockout last year in April. That was the only fight for 28-year-old Russell Jr. in 2016.
By Gerardo Granados: The answer is so blatantly obvious that the question doesn’t really need asking. Next November 14 the WBC featherweight titlist Gary Russel W26(15)-L1-D0 will fight against Oscar Escandon W24(16)-L4-D0. But what could be special about this bout, is it the match up of the year so far or is it that this one can definitely be the fight of the year? In reality this is only the first title defense for Russel and will be the first shot for a major title for Escandon.