GARY RUSSELL SR. ON JHONNY GONZALEZ: "JHONNY IS NOT THE FASTEST OF FIGHTERS...GARY'S HAND SPEED IS GOING TO DICTATE THE PACE"
By Percy Crawford | March 17, 2015
PC: Gary always seemed to want the fight with Jhonny Gonzalez. On March 28th, he gets his opportunity at him. Tell us about it my man.
GRS: So far, so good. It's a good fight; it's a good look. Jhonny is a good guy. We have been training since our last fight. We gonna make it happen. We got good sparring. We training hard. We got really, really good sparring for this fight. As of today, I think we were 128 and we are weeks away, so we're doing good right now.
PC: What did you take away from the Lomachenko fight?
GRS: Gary fought 23 fights prior to that fight and never lost a round in a fight. I think the magnitude of his first championship fight kind of weighed on us a little bit psychologically. At that time, our weight was comfortable. We were right on the money, fluctuating between 23-26. With us getting in so early, he ate something. We got some food to put on a few pounds, which was a good thing. He hired a strength and conditioning coach. His whole career, I did the strength and conditioning. He hired a strength and conditioning guy. The strength and conditioning guy, after we worked out, we did a two-a-day; shake out and get our weight down comfortably. So he was a few pounds over and we were good. That night, I go to my hotel room, they go to a 24 Hour Fitness and sit in a sauna to take the extra weight off. I didn't know this. The next day, he eat, put on a few pounds, which is what we do, and that night, what does Gary do? He goes back to the sauna with this strength guy and sat there for an hour or hour and a half. So he done already burned off fluids. What the sauna does is drains the rest out of you. The day of the weigh-ins, we looked. The strength and conditioning guy had done caught a flight back to DC. Now it's fight time and I'm in the corner asking what the hell is going on because he looked burned out. He had nothing left. After the first round, he told me, "I'm dead! I'm done. I feel so weak!" That was the fight.
PC: Did that loss mentally affect Gary in your opinion?
GRS: It was a bad thing, but one thing I can say about that is, Gary went 12 with nothing; nothing in the tank.
PC: Gonzalez has a ton of experience and he's been in there with some quality guys. What do you think of him as an opponent?
GRS: I think Jhonny is a very reputable opponent. I think that he has a lot of power and, like you said, a ton of experience in the ring. Jhonny is long and he doesn't like backing up. He needs space to get off, from the fights that I watched. We plan on taking advantage of things he doesn't do well. I think a key factor in this fight will be speed. Jhonny is not the fastest of fighters, so I think Gary's hand speed is going to dictate the pace. I think at a point in the fight, Jhonny is going to have to realize that he can't match Gary's hand speed, so he's going to have to bite down on his mouthpiece and try to walk Gary down.
PC: How important was it for Gary to get that fight with Christopher Martin before heading into another high-profile fight?
GRS: We needed that tune-up fight because he was really rough and durable and hadn't been stopped and Gary went 10 with him. It was reduced to sort of a sparring session. I think that coming off of a loss, I thought it would really play with his mind psychologically. How much? You get over it in time and he had to know that he didn't have to try to prove anything. In Gary's case, I think he's good because he wants to fight Lomachenko again, so it's still in his mind where he wants the fight. He even said if they fought 100 times, he would win 99 of them. I really don't think Lomachenko has the ability that Gary has. He got Gary at his worst as far as being physically prepared for a fight. And I have to take some of the blame for that because I should have been more hands on with the strength and conditioning and all of that because, like I said, I had no clue they were sitting in a sauna.
PC: What are your thoughts on everything that Al Haymon has going on right now?
GRS: I think that Al is really a pioneer. I think that he is opening the door for a lot of athletes. He's been criticized a lot by a lot of people saying that he has a monopoly on boxing. Personally, I think the man is doing a wonderful job, I'm behind him 100% and so are the people that fight under his banner. I watched Broner and I watched Keith Thurman and a lot of the other guys that fight and they say, "I'd like to thank Al Haymon." It's not that all of them are programmed to say that. It's just they all feel that way and they feel that way because they know the sport of boxing. They know how corrupt it is and how people get robbed and all of these people are thanking him because he's a genuine dude. I talk to him not just on business, but on personal stuff like family. Al is really a good guy. He's feeding these fighters that haven't been fed in awhile. We got so many pugilists out here that ain't getting no kind of money. They not getting paid because the managers and promoters are getting the majority of the money. Everybody is treated fairly with him. He's putting them on TV and getting them good fights and that's what a manager is supposed to do. He's supposed to look out for his product, which Al is doing. I have nothing but positive things to say about him.
http://fighthype.com/news/article19742.html
By Percy Crawford | March 17, 2015
PC: Gary always seemed to want the fight with Jhonny Gonzalez. On March 28th, he gets his opportunity at him. Tell us about it my man.
GRS: So far, so good. It's a good fight; it's a good look. Jhonny is a good guy. We have been training since our last fight. We gonna make it happen. We got good sparring. We training hard. We got really, really good sparring for this fight. As of today, I think we were 128 and we are weeks away, so we're doing good right now.
PC: What did you take away from the Lomachenko fight?
GRS: Gary fought 23 fights prior to that fight and never lost a round in a fight. I think the magnitude of his first championship fight kind of weighed on us a little bit psychologically. At that time, our weight was comfortable. We were right on the money, fluctuating between 23-26. With us getting in so early, he ate something. We got some food to put on a few pounds, which was a good thing. He hired a strength and conditioning coach. His whole career, I did the strength and conditioning. He hired a strength and conditioning guy. The strength and conditioning guy, after we worked out, we did a two-a-day; shake out and get our weight down comfortably. So he was a few pounds over and we were good. That night, I go to my hotel room, they go to a 24 Hour Fitness and sit in a sauna to take the extra weight off. I didn't know this. The next day, he eat, put on a few pounds, which is what we do, and that night, what does Gary do? He goes back to the sauna with this strength guy and sat there for an hour or hour and a half. So he done already burned off fluids. What the sauna does is drains the rest out of you. The day of the weigh-ins, we looked. The strength and conditioning guy had done caught a flight back to DC. Now it's fight time and I'm in the corner asking what the hell is going on because he looked burned out. He had nothing left. After the first round, he told me, "I'm dead! I'm done. I feel so weak!" That was the fight.
PC: Did that loss mentally affect Gary in your opinion?
GRS: It was a bad thing, but one thing I can say about that is, Gary went 12 with nothing; nothing in the tank.
PC: Gonzalez has a ton of experience and he's been in there with some quality guys. What do you think of him as an opponent?
GRS: I think Jhonny is a very reputable opponent. I think that he has a lot of power and, like you said, a ton of experience in the ring. Jhonny is long and he doesn't like backing up. He needs space to get off, from the fights that I watched. We plan on taking advantage of things he doesn't do well. I think a key factor in this fight will be speed. Jhonny is not the fastest of fighters, so I think Gary's hand speed is going to dictate the pace. I think at a point in the fight, Jhonny is going to have to realize that he can't match Gary's hand speed, so he's going to have to bite down on his mouthpiece and try to walk Gary down.
PC: How important was it for Gary to get that fight with Christopher Martin before heading into another high-profile fight?
GRS: We needed that tune-up fight because he was really rough and durable and hadn't been stopped and Gary went 10 with him. It was reduced to sort of a sparring session. I think that coming off of a loss, I thought it would really play with his mind psychologically. How much? You get over it in time and he had to know that he didn't have to try to prove anything. In Gary's case, I think he's good because he wants to fight Lomachenko again, so it's still in his mind where he wants the fight. He even said if they fought 100 times, he would win 99 of them. I really don't think Lomachenko has the ability that Gary has. He got Gary at his worst as far as being physically prepared for a fight. And I have to take some of the blame for that because I should have been more hands on with the strength and conditioning and all of that because, like I said, I had no clue they were sitting in a sauna.
PC: What are your thoughts on everything that Al Haymon has going on right now?
GRS: I think that Al is really a pioneer. I think that he is opening the door for a lot of athletes. He's been criticized a lot by a lot of people saying that he has a monopoly on boxing. Personally, I think the man is doing a wonderful job, I'm behind him 100% and so are the people that fight under his banner. I watched Broner and I watched Keith Thurman and a lot of the other guys that fight and they say, "I'd like to thank Al Haymon." It's not that all of them are programmed to say that. It's just they all feel that way and they feel that way because they know the sport of boxing. They know how corrupt it is and how people get robbed and all of these people are thanking him because he's a genuine dude. I talk to him not just on business, but on personal stuff like family. Al is really a good guy. He's feeding these fighters that haven't been fed in awhile. We got so many pugilists out here that ain't getting no kind of money. They not getting paid because the managers and promoters are getting the majority of the money. Everybody is treated fairly with him. He's putting them on TV and getting them good fights and that's what a manager is supposed to do. He's supposed to look out for his product, which Al is doing. I have nothing but positive things to say about him.
http://fighthype.com/news/article19742.html
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