Russell out 'six to eight weeks' with hairline fracture

Gary Russell Jr. said an examination he received on Tuesday revealed a hairline fracture in his left hand, which occurred during his unanimous-decision rout of Vyacheslav Gusev on Saturday. Russell will be out of action for six to eight weeks.

"It's not my wrist, but my left hand. It's a hairline fracture," said Russell (22-0, 13 KOs), who was forced to double- and triple-up on his jab midway through the fight. "It happened, I believe, somewhere around the fifth or sixth round. I don't think it's a reoccurring injury."

Russell believes that the hand was further aggravated in the eighth round, when his left glove ripped and was replaced by a second pair.

"The entire glove actually split open," he said. "It split open on the side of the glove where my hand was hurting on. That was the support that I needed."

"I think it's an injury that basically came from us switching the style of gloves at the last minute. We changed to a different style of gloves because we wanted to give me more protection. The injury, I think, is a side effect of that."

Russell, 24, had hoped that his issues with brittle hands were behind him, but he does not expect to return to action until late Spring.

"We want to get back into the ring as soon as possible. Unfortunately, with the injury and everything, it will be six-to-eight weeks. After the six-to-eight weeks, there will have to be a test out process in the gym," said Russell.

"We'll have to see how everything goes. But at this point, we probably won't be back into the ring until June. We had big plans for this year, and we're just hoping that this injury won't set us back."

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com