Photo by Stephanie Trapp/Showtime Sports
Gary Russell Jr. (25-1, 14 KOs) returned to the ring tonight with a ten-round unanimous decision win over Christopher Martin (28-5-3, 9 KOs) at the Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton, Washington.
The Featherweight fight was the co-main event of a quadruple-header that was presented by Goossen Tutor Promotions and Showtime Sports.
As it has only been about six months since his first career loss to Vasyl Lomachenko for the vacant WBO Featherweight title, Russell, of Washington, DC, sought to reveal some of the adjustments he has made since then.
The 26-year-old Olympian, however, boxed the way he usually does, off of a quick jab followed by combination punches that weren’t being at sat on.
Russell was nevertheless successful as he was busier and more accurate in every round to the point where he was even playing with Martin in parts of the later rounds.
Martin, 28, was clearly not used to walking an opponent down and demonstrated this as he struggled to land punches in every round.
Russell bounced back after his first loss, but will have to fight another top-level Featherweight before vying for another world title in a division that includes Nicolas Walters, Jhonny Gonzalez, Abner Mares, Evgeny Gradovich, and Vasyl Lomachenko.
Needless to say, there are many fights to be made in that division.
