Former IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington 30-0 (7) has reminded WBC 126-pound champion Gary Russell Jr 31-1 (18) that he is not Floyd Mayweather after rejecting a $1million offer to fight him.
Russell recently revealed he had received the offer from Warrington’s promoter Eddie Hearn, labelling it “beneath my standards”.
But Warrington – who will face little-known Mexican Mauricio Lara 21-2 (14) in a stay-busy fight at The SSE Wembley Arena in London on Saturday night – says the once-beaten American is overvaluing himself.
“He’s unbelievable, I don’t know where he gets it from,” Warrington told Mirror Sport.
“A lot of these American fighters seem to want humongous pay cheques when they’re not bringing anything to the table.
“I’ve said it before, they all want to be paid like Floyd Mayweather, but they don’t have the same profile as Floyd Mayweather.
“I don’t think Gary Russell Jr is selling out arenas and selling thousands of tickets, he’s not the biggest of names.
“He knows he’s not got long left. He’s 32, he’s not a young fighter anymore so he probably wants to cash in.”
The 30-year-old Leeds Warrior was originally scheduled to face WBA ‘regular’ titleholder Xu Can 18-2 (3) before the Chinese boxer withdrew from the contest. It is a fight that Warrington still wants.
“We were originally scheduled to fight Xu Can and then he pulled out for whatever reason, I’m still not too sure,” he said.
“I think it was something about him worried about catching Covid over here. I thought that was laughable. He’s using that as an excuse when he’s not boxing for so long. You’d think he’d be itching to get back.
“But if I come through this one, Eddie is saying the fight could be made quite soon after.”
Meanwhile, Russell made an appearance on The PBC Podcast to discuss a potential showdown with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis 24-0 (23).
“Y’all asking the wrong person that question. Y’all need to be asking Floyd Mayweather that,” Russell said.
“You know, because I don’t think they feel it’s in Tank’s best interests to step in the ring with me. You know, these guys, they tend to cater to their fighters. They cater to the guys in the sport. They cater to these guys. They consider him the next big thing. I think I’m too much of a threat. I’m too much of a risk. I can really fuckin’ fight.
“You know, and I’m willing to make the fight happen. I ain’t one of these guys that’s gonna run away from the fight. You know, we’re gonna make the fight happen. And I honestly feel as though they believe I have the skillset and everything to make it very, very difficult and expose their fighter. And if I do that, you know, that kinda messes up their investment.”
Russell added that he felt Davis was down on the cards before he knocked out WBA featherweight and super featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz 37-2-1 (19) with an uppercut in the sixth-round of their contest in San Antonio last October.
“My completely unbiased opinion, I felt like Leo held his own very, very well,” Russell said. “I felt like Leo, he got stopped in the sixth round, I think – I honestly think that leading up to the sixth round, Leo was clearly winning in my book.”
