Star-Studded Featherweight Division Is Quickly Becoming Boxing's Best
The featherweight division in boxing is heating up, thanks in part to Gary Russell Jr.’s Round 4 demolition of Jhonny Gonzalez on Saturday night. The win netted Russell, age 26, the WBC featherweight title as well as an embarrassment of riches when it comes to potential future opponents.
Name any top-10 featherweight in the world today. That’s who I want to see Russell in with next.
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Russell was brilliant against Gonzalez. He was fast, accurate and in charge from the opening bell. This version of the fighter was a far cry from the Russell who was handed by fellow featherweight star Vasyl Lomachenko for the WBO title just nine months prior.
The ethereal hand speed of Russell was the difference in the fight. He put his punches together fast and accurately right from the start.
After showing Gonzalez he had the goods in Round 1 with flashy combinations, the southpaw scored a pair of knockdowns in Round 3 with swift and straight left hands. That’s his money punch, and he landed it with ease.
Russell told ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael that was the plan all along:
"We knew that he was trying to find the left hook, and the left hand was the key in the fight. We knew that our left hand would beat his wide left hook. I don't feel as though he really recovered from the first knockdown. My father told me to keep my composure, stay off the jab and close the distance.
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Russell’s emergence from the wreckage of the Lomachenko defeat has turned the featherweight division into the deepest in the sport.
Russell, Lomachenko and Gonzalez are all top-flight fighters. Make no mistake, Gonzalez was easily handled by Russell, but he is still an exceedingly tough out for almost anyone else in the division.
Roughnecks Evgeny Gradovich and Abner Mares are hard-nosed brawlers with great skill sets. They bring the action to their opponents and make for good television every time out. Moreover, each man possesses the talent to defeat other elite featherweights.
The former is the IBF titleholder and has never tasted defeat as a professional. The latter has won world titles in three different weight classes, including featherweight, and was once thought of as the future of the division.
Both men are still in their late 20s.
Contenders such as Lee Selby, Simpiwe Vetyeka, Jesus Marcelo Andres Cuellar and Robinson Castellanos provide the kind of depth most weight classes simply don’t have. These guys are legit.
Oh, and then there’s maybe the scariest featherweight of them all: Nicholas Walters.
The WBA champ Walters is an undefeated knockout machine. He’s tough, fast-handed and has ridiculous power in both hands. He’s won his last five fights by knockout, including the last two over former titleholders Vic Darchinyan and Nonito Donaire.
All potential fights among titleholders and contenders appear barnburners. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Moreover, just four pounds south of the division sit perhaps two of the most interesting fighters in the sport today.
TBRB, Ring Magazine, WBA and WBO junior featherweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux might be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. While the smallish Rigo appears reluctant to move up in weight for the same money he can make fighting at 122, the featherweight division is chalk full of matchups a large television network just might find intriguing enough to throw obscene amounts of money toward.
Rigondeaux didn’t defect from Cuba to languish in obscurity. He also didn’t leave home to be poor. One can easily envision him being lured up one division for big-money paydays.
Moreover, popular WBC junior featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz has already been pining for a long-awaited scrap against Mares. A dip of his toe into the featherweight waters would liven up boxing’s star-studded division even more.
Santa Cruz is a whirlwind of punches when the bell rings. He’d make a great matchup for any featherweight in the world.
And if all that wasn’t enough, multi-division champion Nonito Donaire just made his way down from 126 to 122 over the weekend and could be a factor at 126 again in the future. In his Round 2 knockout over William Prado on Saturday, Donaire dazzled fans with his handspeed and power, something he found difficult to do in his Round 6 knockout loss to Walters last October.
But Donaire could compete with the likes of Mares, Santa Cruz and Gonzalez at any weight, and fighters tend to chase big money fights as they age past their primes no matter what weight class they say prefer.
According to RingTV.com’s Ryan Songalia, Donaire struggled to squeeze back down to 122 pounds anyway. He might have to move up.
Regardless, the featherweight division is full of up-and-comers, tough contenders and elite-level fighters. Even more could make their way there soon.
It might very well be the best weight class in boxing today.
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