Antuanne Russell's opponent pulled out of the final contest due to illness which gave Russell the gold medal at the US Olympic Trial Qualifier in Colorado Springs, CO on Saturday. It was a special moment for two of the brothers, Gary Jr. and Antuanne as Jr. presented his younger brother with his gold medal. The Russell family has been providing the Beltway Boxing area with a number of "A" list championship titles.Tyrek Irby has already qualified for this years US Trials because he won the World Championship Trials last year.
Older brother Gary Russell, Jr. is a 2005 Golden Gloves Champion, former 2008 US Olympian and current WBC Featherweight World Champion. He put on an outstanding performance on March 28, 2015 by knocking out Jhonny Gonzalez in the 4th round to win the title.
Antoine Russell also earned a shot in the 2012 US Olympic Trials. He moved on to capture the 2013 Golden Gloves Title. On July 11, 2015 he turn professional.
The Beltway Boxing area has six fighters with top rankings. Gary Russell is the champion featherweight in the world. Lamont Peterson is the IBF Jr. welterweight champion and there are three middleweights in the Beltway area that are ranked among the top 15 in the world by the WBC and the WBA. Dominic Wade is ranked number 14 by the WBC and number 12 by the WBA. Tony Jeter has moved up to number 11 in the WBC and is number 15 in the WBA. Antoine Douglas is ranked number 14 by the WBC. In the welterweight division Dusty Hernandez-Harrison in ranked 14th by the WBO.
This year the Beltway region has won a total of five medals in the 2015 Junior Olympic Nationals at the Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, WVA. The gold metal winners are Jalil Hackett, 85 pound Bantam champion, Quincey Williams 80 pound Bantam champion, and Ragahleek Bartee Intermediate, 75 pound champion. The two silver medal winners are Richard Dodson, 9-10, 65 pounds and Tyreek Williams Bantam, 75 pounds. Also in 2015 there as been five Silver Gloves National Champions Tyreek Williams, Rajahleek Bartee, Lawrence Malcolm, Stacey Selby and Michael Tymas.The Beltway area has had many world champions. Sugar Ray Leonard, Mark John, who both are in The International Boxing Hall Of Fame. That is the most highest honor any professional boxer can achieve. Also this area has had other champions like Keith Holmes, William Joppy, DeMarcus Corley, Sharmba Mitchell, Simon Brown, Vincent Pettway, and even Riddick Bowe, who was born in Brooklyn, NY but resided in Fort Washington, MD.
Boxing might have slowed down a little in this area during the 90's through the early 2000's, but it never stopped. From the year 2011 until this current year the area has produced championship fighters on both the amateur and professional levels. There are fighters that are currently signed by the top boxing promotion companies and management organizations in the entire world. These fighters are now fighting on nationally televised cards.The local fight cards are where everything begins. Some of the area local promoters have been putting on professional boxing shows for many years. Now there are newer promoters that came on the scene and started adding more shows to the area.
If you want to become a fan of boxing and really understand the sport you should start coming to the local boxing shows, both amateur and professional. It's nothing like seeing a live boxing show. Once you see one then you're hooked. This way you will be able to follow a young fighter in the building stages of their careers. One day you might see them on television fighting for a championship then you can say I seen that fighter when he use to fight in your hometown. Now that's seeing history in the making!
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