Upcoming fight: Gary Russell Jr vs Mark Magsayo - Who wins?

agREED...

While Magsayo Won Clearly, He Could've/Should've Made MORE of a Statement Once it Became Obvious Russell was Compromised...Magsayo Should've RAMPED UP the Aggression But Instead he Did the OPPOSITE...

He was Impressive in the Early Rounds and Not Soooooo Much as the Bout Progressed...




REED

 

Magsayo is nothing special in the grand scheme of things. He's a belt holder level guy.

 

Agreed.

Are there people who think otherwise?

He was in a very entertaining fight against Ceja, though. So while he was uninspiring last night, he should be in some good fights down the stretch. Especially with Lara.

 

Lara would be a good fight.

Navarette figures to be too much for him.

 

Agreed.

Although, there's just something about Navarrate's style that I don't like. I dunno, I'm just not as drawn in by it. I think it's his lack of a base stance. Makes everything feel a little jarring. Idk Lol I just doing really like watching him.

 

Nonsense! He's clearly a subtle genius in there...

 

I know you're poking fun, but I do think Navarrete is more intelligent than you see at face value, but yeah, he isn't no genius.

I actually prefer watching Fulton, Figuroa, and Akhmadaliev over Navarrete. How's that for hipster

 

Figueroa is a hack. I rather watch Nav over him.

 

Nah, I love watching Figueroa. He's like a mini Margarito.

 

Marg was a lot more skilled.

 

Marg was a lot better.

But they've got similar styles and I enjoy watching Figueroa a lot.

Anybody who beats up a dickhead like Luis Nery has a fan in me.

 

The fight itself was and overall disappointment. Magsayo won mainly because he was the bigger, younger, stronger man, but even then he barely won against a one armed Russell. I don't think Magsayo will get far based on how we saw him against an injured fighter.
I'm just glad that we finally have a new champion that won't be fighting just once a year. Russell had it coming.

Subriel Matias is becoming a must-watch fighter. I love his buzzsaw attack, always exciting to watch. Hoping we finally get the chance to see him fight for a title soon.

 

Agreed. An elite fighter would have given a one-armed Russell a thrashing.

Magsayo ONLY has a future because featherweight is extremely weak right now.

He wouldn't have even been a top 10 guy in 2001.

 

He probably would be top ten. I'd take him over William Abelyan, Frankie Toledo and Mbulelo Botile. Iirc, they were all ranked in the early 2000s.

 

My point is that I think even a non-elite guy from that late 90s/early 00s era, say for example, Paul Ingle, would beat Magsayo.

 

And I completely, 100% agree.

Ingle-Magsayo would pretty fun, though. If a bit one sided.

 

I suppose the natural next question to ask, is how do you rate Gary Russell Jr?

He is, IMO, one of the most talented featherweights in the last forty years. Right up there with Gamboa and Pacquiao in terms of sheer athletic talent. Obviously it didn't amount to much career wise, due to a lack of ambition, but even still does anyone think he's good head-to-head?

All these years on, he's still Loma's best win IMO.

 

I don't think Russell is the same galaxy as Pac in terms of talent. He's not in Gamboa's talent league either.

Pac is one of the top 10 most physically gifted fighters of all time.

Gary Russell has fast hands. That's it. Plenty of guys in history had fast hands.

 

Not many fighters had hands as fast as Russell's. Probably not even ten fighters ever. And Russell isn't just fast hands, he's got fast feet and fast reactions. He's got good reflexes and is extremely fluid when letting them go. He's also got really good eyes.

Now, I didn't mean to say he was Pac's level of talent, although reading back it does read like that. He isn't, but he is clearly faster and has better reflexes.

Russell is absolutely, 100% in Gamboa's league for athletic talent. The fuck you smoking?

 

I don't see what's so special about Gary's reflexes, and his foot speed is good, but we aren't talking about Leonard/Camacho type footspeed here.

He's just not some generational talent - not even remotely close.

Gamboa was an athletic freak - he was missing a chin, and missing high IQ - but physically he was freak.

Faster hands, feet, and reflexes than Russell.

I think you're really overblowing Russell's talent. Not to say he was lacking talent, but no I wouldn't categorize him as anything near a special talent. Just a speedy southpaw. Handspeed isn't everthing.

For example, Mark Johnson and Michael Nunn weren't as fast handed as Russell, but I would say both of them were 10x more talented than Russell.

 

In terms of title reign length and number of defenses, there are surprising parallels between Gary Russell and Willie Pep. Pep - 6 years, 6 successful defenses; Russell - 7 years, 5 successful defenses.

Just one significant difference: Russell fought 6 times in nearly 7 years; Pep fought about 70 times in the same period.