Gary Russell Jr.'s ill-fated attempt to fight Leo Santa Cruz
It was either a case of mistaken identity or just a silly mistake from start to finish. Whatever it was, featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. lit up social media with video of him and Leo Santa Cruz’s father.
In Russell’s long-running attempt to land a fight with Santa Cruz, he posted video of him and Santa Cruz’s father in a locker room at Bakersfield, California. Russell puts his arm around Jose Santa Cruz, also Leo’s trainer, and says his son has been “ducking” him. The video was up and running a couple of weeks ago. It’s still generating talk.
Leo Santa Cruz discussed it with reporters Saturday during a news conference when he announced he would fight Miguel Flores in his debut at junior lightweight on November 23.
No disrespect intended, Russell said.
There is some debate about that, at least from an audience critical of Russell, who has been accused of crossing a line in the video where he is seen touching and admiring gold chains worn by Santa Cruz’s dad, a cancer survivor.
How about talking to Leo instead of his dad, fans asked. Leo says it doesn’t matter, anyway.
“My dad didn’t know who he was,’’ said Santa Cruz, who talked about Flores and mentioned Gervonta Davis more as a potential opponent.
Instead, Leo said, his dad thought he was talking to Rico Ramos, a Puerto Rican junior featherweight and featherweight who lives and trains in Southern California.
“My dad didn’t know what was going on,” Santa Cruz said during the news conference at Staples Center. “He thought it was Rico Ramos, because they kind of look alike.’’
But it was all a misunderstanding. Leo said his father doesn’t understand English.
“This is boxing,’’ Leo said his father told him. “This is what you get in boxing. And you have to get used to it if you’re in boxing. That’s what fighters do, they talk to get under your skin, to make a fight happen. This is boxing.”
Santa Cruz says he has known Russell since they were amateurs. Russell says he beat Santa Cruz in the amateur ranks.
“In the amateurs, he would always talk stuff at me,’’ Santa Cruz said. “I’m used to that. He’s always been like that.’’
There had been some talk about Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 knockouts) fighting Russell (30-1, 18 KOs), who has fought only four times since he won a 126-pound belt in March 2015 in a stoppage of Jhonny Gonzalez.
“I know the promoters couldn’t come to an agreement,’’ said Santa Cruz, who will make his 130-pound debut on a card featured by the Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz rematch at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. “I don’t know. It was maybe about money. I don’t know.”