Gary Russell Jr. to Make His Pro Debut this Friday

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 01.13.2009

The former US Olympian to fight on ShoBox.

Photo courtesy of the Washington Post

Gary Russell Jr., the heavily hyped former US Olympian had his Olympic dreams cut short when he passed out in his dorm the night before the weigh-in in Beijing. Russell was then disqualified from participating in the Games, shattering his hopes of competing.

"To be honest, none of it made sense to me,'' Russell said. "I still do not know for sure what happened that night and never received the official diagnosis as to why or what happened. Olympic doctors never gave me an exact reason. They just said, ‘it could be this, it could be that.'

"I'd been in Beijing for a month and everything was fine. I was ready to achieve a life-long goal, something I had dedicated myself to for eight or nine years. When it all came down, when I couldn't fight, I was so mad and blown away. Everything I worked for went down the drain in an instant.''

Now with his pro-debut only days away, Russell will finally get a chance to showcase his skills to a national audience as he takes on Antonio Reyes (3-2) of Dallas, TX.

Undefeated featherweights Leonilo Miranda (24-0, 23 KOs), of Mexico, and Orlando Cruz (15-0-1, 6 KOs), of Puerto Rico, will battle it out in the ShoBox 10-round main event. The co-feature will match Marvin Quintero (14-1, 11 KOs), of Mexico, against Nick Casal (18-3-1, 14 KOs) of Chicago, in an eight-round lightweight bout.

The first ShoBox event in 2009 is promoted by Gary Shaw Productions and will culminate from the Million Dollar Elm Casino in Tulsa, OK.