Kemahl Russell disappointed by poor booking

It was an exciting night in March 2018, when Jamaica's brightest prospect in years successfully defended the Junior North American Boxing Federation (NABF) title at the National Arena in Kingston.

Kemahl 'Hitman' Russell, the main attraction of the fight card jointly promoted by Real Deal Boxing, headed by boxing great Evander Holyfield and Uprising Promotions, was stripped of the very title he defended, a few months after what the local boxing fraternity thought was a resurgence of local talent at the international level.

Russell is now designated as 'inactive' by popular site boxrec.com, with an official record of 13 wins and only one loss. Eleven of those victories were achieved by way of knockout and his only defeat was at the hands of the Ukrainian Sergiy Derevyanchenko in 2014. The Ukrainian is currently ranked as a top-three contender by the International Boxing Federation.

Russell lamented the challenges he has had in getting opportunities inside the ring.

"You know, I was stripped because I never fought soon enough," he told STAR Sports. "You only get three months to defend the Junior NABF title, not a long time. I haven't fought for a year at this point. I had anticipated I would have gotten to fight for a number of times for the year, but that wasn't happening and I lost my belt as a result."

Disappointment

Russell further expressed disappointment with the trajectory of his career thus far, voicing his thirst for facing off with fighters from the upper echelons of the sport.

"I am turned off whenever I fight as an undercard, I prefer being the main attraction," he said. It would be a dream come through to fight one of the top middleweights in the division one day, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, Danny Jacobs or either of the Charlo twins (Jermell and Jermall). There are quite a few fighters out there who I would like to face."

While there are no official fights set for this year, Russell is still optimistic at his chances of claiming another championship. He says he is at a crossroads and weighing his options while he looks to improve his prospects.

"I have no intentions of stopping right now, I am still in training keeping fit," he said."There are things going on which I cannot disclose right now, but as soon as I get the opportunity, I will be back inside the ring. I should be part of a training camp as a sparring partner for a World champ, which I expect to start soon."