NBC Article on Gary Russell Jr.

Here's an article from NBCOlympics.com on the D/M/V's own Gary Russell Jr:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Gary Russell, Jr. stands out when the U.S. Olympic boxers train together, and not just because of the smiley-face-yellow windbreaker he wears. The 119-pounder's punches sizzle and zing with uncommon power as they pepper his coach's mitts, and his fluid feet move in an educated shuffle most amateur fighters can't match.

Oh, and the 5-foot-3 Russell is the only boxer with a lanky, striking women's volleyball player waiting for him to finish working out.

"This whole complex, there's females everywhere,'' Russell says with the slightest twinkle before a workout at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. "You've got to learn to try to deal with them, but not give them too much of your time. You've got to know what the real purpose of being here is, but you've still got to try to live a normal life, I guess.''

Gary Russell, left, fights Rudolf Dydi of Slovakia at the 2007 World Boxing Championships in Chicago.
Russell talks fast and moves faster, fighting with a flashy fury he has possessed since he was a 2-year-old prodigy putting on shadowboxing shows before fight cards in his native Washington, D.C.

The promising bantamweight, a medal favorite in Beijing next month, has a temperament and style that seem to be throwbacks to the most ebullient American Olympic boxers from Cassius Clay to Floyd Mayweather. Though he has plans for a brief, lucrative pro career, Russell has nurtured an old-fashioned dream since the first time he saw the Olympics' pageantry and nationalistic fervor on television a decade ago.

"I've just always thought winning a gold medal would mean more than being a world champion, or winning all that money, or anything,'' Russell says. "There's just something about it.''

Russell is the oldest of five brothers all named Gary Russell - albeit with different middle names. Their father, Gary Sr., built a boxing gym in his basement to teach his sons the principles of the sport he loves.

Despite his outgoing personality, Russell largely keeps to himself outside the ring. His father has seen that singular focus ever since Little Gary was young, when he first got an inkling of the dedication necessary to be an Olympian and a successful pro.

Russell has similarly defined ideas about his pro career, which probably will start right after he undergoes surgery on a torn tendon in his right shoulder following the Olympics.

He realizes an Olympic team berth - or even a medal - don't guarantee a lucrative pro career for any U.S. fighter any more.

"You've got to be marketable, and I think a lot of people lack that on this team,'' Russell says. "I think there's a couple of people that can definitely be marketable, and others that I can't see. And then they've got to bring something to the table that fans like to see.

"Really nobody on this team is a puncher, and that draws attention to a lot of fighters, a lot of hand speed and a lot of power. I'm a puncher from the get-go. I know that when I punch, I'm going to knock a lot of people out. I actually have more knockouts than a lot of people have fights.''

Russell's next-younger brother, Allan, nearly made the Olympic team at 132 pounds, and he plans to stick around to try again in four years. Russell's parents, Gary Sr. and Lawan, have been raising money for nearly a year to afford a trip to Beijing, and Russell thinks the community fundraisers and bake sales have produced enough to get them to China.

Russell intends to make it worth the trip by featuring a punching power that doesn't seem to belong to a 119-pounder. He calls himself the second-hardest puncher on the team, behind heavyweight Deontay Wilder.

"The thing about having power is it forces a young boxer to utilize it too much sometimes,'' U.S. coach Dan Campbell says. "People want to see knockouts, and he has the tendency to push too much in one direction. You've got to learn how to be a complete fighter, and he's been working on that as long as we've been in residence here.''

Russell has been the top-ranked American bantamweight for three years now, so he feels like he's been waiting an uncommonly long time for the Olympics. That wait got even longer for Russell when he made the Olympic team and had to report to the training center in Colorado Springs, where the fighters have spent most of the past year under the tutelage of their national team coaches.

Moving was no fun for most of the boxers, but Russell was particularly outspoken, calling the strategy "a prison sentence.'' Now, at the end of nine long months in training, he sees the benefits of working under Campbell, who has known Russell since his infancy.

"They have a lot of stuff that you could use here, but at the same time, it's been like nine months and change,'' Russell says. "I really still don't like it, but at the same time, you've got to realize that in order to get where you want to go, you've got to make the sacrifices, man. I've got to be here, away from my family, to get to there in China.''

When he isn't chasing volleyball players, Russell takes drives in his car, hits the movies and does a lot of bowling: "I roll a little 200 every now and then.''

The training and several successful dual meets have honed Russell's confidence to a fine point. His bravado leaps out when he speaks dismissively of Russian world champion Sergey Vodopyanov, who beat him in last year's world championships and is the biggest obstacle to Russell's 15-year quest for a gold medal.

"It was real political with the Russian,'' Russell says. "You know they've got the little Russian mafia out there. They pay off the judges and all that. ... It's going to be different next time. I'm definitely one of the favorites. There's no doubt in my mind I'm one of the best in the world.''