Renowned trainer Robert Garcia has advised Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela to fight “smart” against Gary Antuanne Russell as they prepare for their March 1 encounter at Barclays Center in New York.
California-based Garcia, who trains WBA junior welterweight titleholder Valenzuela, revealed to BoxingScene that they will be going into the Russell fight with a different approach, unlike the moving around, boxing, and jabbing technique that won them the belt against Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz last August.
“Russell has got a lot of power, he’s a big, strong fighter, so we don’t have to move around too much,” said Garcia. “I think we just have to be very smart in a lot of angles and keep that for the full 12 rounds. Obviously, we’re not too keen on a knockout, but yeah we don’t have to box too much.”
Born in Mexico and now based in Washington state, the 14-2 (9 KOs) Valenzuela recorded an upset win with a 12-round split decision over Cruz last August. Before chalking up that victory, Valenzuela had to come back stronger from consecutive defeats to Edwin De Los Santos and Chris Colbert in September 2022 and March 2023, respectively.
Nine months after the first Colbert defeat, Valenzuela avenged his controversial loss in a rematch, stopping the Brooklyn-born fighter in six rounds. That win secured him a shot at Cruz’s WBA title.
Garcia said all Valenzuela had to do to become a world champion was to believe in himself and listen to technical advice.
“He followed instructions. Every minute break in the round, we were reminding him what he needs to do because to fight and beat Pitbull, it doesn’t take too much knowledge. You just have to be smart and fight on the outside and keep him on the outside, so that’s what we were just reminding him every single minute.”
Garcia refuted claims of an immediate fight for Valenzuela at 147, stating that the WBA champion would prefer to welcome big names at 140. Garcia was open to a future bout between Valenzuela and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“There’re a lot of options, but we gotta take it fight by fight. After Russell, then we could think of other stuff, but obviously we gotta take it one fight at a time,” he said.
Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at [email protected].
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