5 Live Boxing with Steve Bunce - Russ Anber: Boxing’s Mr Versatile

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

Is there a more successful and more versatile man in boxing? For more than three decades, Russ Anber has been one of the sport's most respected and influential figures. A world-renowned trainer, cutman, hand wrapper, manager and proud member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, he has worked in the corners of countless world champions and been at the heart of some of boxing's biggest nights.Away from the corner, Anber is also the founder of Rival Boxing Gear, the company behind what has become the most widely used boxing glove in the world. His innovation has changed the sport just as much outside the ring as inside it.In this special episode, Buncey sits down with Anber to reflect on an extraordinary career that has taken him from humble beginnings to the very top of boxing. They discuss the fighters who have shaped his journey, the pressure and precision required to be one of the sport's finest cutmen and hand wrappers.

This is Five Live Boxing. Now, a couple of weeks ago, you might have seen an Anthony Joshua's corner, a man called Russ Amber. He wrapped AJ's hands and he was in charge of any cut. But that's only part of the story. That's not even 1% of the Russ Amber story. It's quite exceptional. It's one of life's true boxing fairy tales. And in June of this year, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota. That, my friend, is a proud. privilege to be part of that exclusive

gang. I'm Steve Bunce and this is Five Live Boxing. Now Russ Amber now we say in boxing someone's versatile. By versatile we might mean he's worked as a matchmaker, he might have even worked as a trainer he might have been an amateur boxer once. No, that's not versatile. Let me list

this guy's achievers and I don't care if he's embarrassed. I don't care. I don't care if he chortles all the way through. I don't care if Paddy the producer rolls his eyes because the list goes on. Get ready. This is going to last about nine minutes of intro, but okay, not 90 seconds, maybe. So,

you set up a gym. You set up a gym because you know there's a gap. You need to have a boxing gym. You're getting kids off the street that have never boxed before. You're teaching them the first thing to know about boxing. You take those kids in packed cars all over North America, all over

Canada, and they win regional titles. Then they win national titles. Then they move on to international events. You get kids going to the Olympics. which you go to out of your own pocket. You go from there to taking some of those kids to the professional ranks, heading forward to national titles,

and then to world titles. Then you think, you know what, that's not bad. He then decides he's learned a few things along the way, and he's learned that gloves could be better. So he comes up with a glove brand rival. And then he gets a reputation as the number one man for applying bandages and wraps. And of course he has worked with business.

names, Alexander Usick, Roy Jones, and of course, AJ, our very own Anthony Joshua. Russ, thanks for finding time to sit here. The pod's over, but it's been really lovely. I've got nothing left to say. I mean, you've said it all. I've got nothing to say.

Did I miss anything? Did I miss anything? Well, you know, I mean, there are, you know, you summarized everything quite well. You know, it's been a hell of a ride, but it's something that I wanted to do from the beginning bunts, my goal was to produce a world champion. That's what I want. And not produce in the sense where if I could find a backer to help me buy the Olympic gold medalist who just came out. I wanted to do it from the ground up. And, you know, my mentor before me, John Davenport.

And, you know, that's what we wanted to do. And he showed me how he worked with Lennox Lewis at the start of Lennox's career. As a result of me, actually, I kind of introduced to the Canadian scene. connections. Yeah, yeah. So, and I did. And I was, and I'm proud that although I always expected Sheffield to be the place to visit, because I wanted to go to the World Snooker Championships, it ended up being the place where I won my first world title, my fighter, Otis Graham. Otis gone, beating Ryan Rhodes. So you had Otis from Baby all the way through, all the way for all these tournaments. So it's a very rare club. Now, I think that I'm sure there are instances in East, in the Eastern Bloc where this has happened. It didn't really happen in Cuba, because

the elite team took the boxers from the clubs when they were a certain age. But Brendan Ingle, of course, did this with a seven-year-old Nassim Hamid. And perhaps the most famous example of a trainer having a boy to man to world champion was Manny Stewart with Tommy Hurons and you. Do you know of any others?

It's not a trick question. I can't think of... Well, the one guy I will come up... And no one's going to know this. No one's going to even think about this, perhaps even yourself, is my dear friend who got me working with his fighter. he took this kid from ground zero to an Olympic bronze medal

to the heavyweight championship of the world and that's JD's with Deonté Wilder. Oh wow. We forget to sweat under our nose. That's right. That's right. A lot of people. He goes under the radar.

You know, Mark Wheelin was kind of the trainer of record, if you will. But Jay was the mastermind behind all of that. I'll add that to my list. Anyway, the reason why we're talking to you, apart from the fact that you and I like you a lot, is you do have a book out and you were inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame this summer.

You can see that. I just noticed it as you said it. And so the book came out about the same time as the induction went down and it's unrivaled a boxing memoir. And I've got to tell you what I like about this, the most fascinating part of this book.

And I had to read it. This was why we didn't interview you in Cairo when we were out there at the fight by the Pyramids in Geiza was that I hadn't read the book and I insist on reading books through. The book itself, it's not just about, oh, bouncing from Roy Jones, I'll bounce into a meeting with Floyd, May, right, oh, bouncing.

No, no. What I like about the book is, it's so many unbelievable stories of you packing 17 and a half kids into a car, driving 500 miles for the regional championships in somewhere in the middle of no, no disrespects to Canada, the middle of nowhere in Canada. Russ, those are your roots, brother. Those are your roots. You know, I think the best way I could summarize that for you is when I had to do two, speeches at the Hall of Fame.

And the first one was at the banquet. And we had about 10 tables there, 12 per table of people who came down. The majority of them being my former fighters. And a lot of them were just amateurs. Some had never even turned pro. And it was important for me at that point to thank them.

That was the most important thing. That part of your journey. That is the journey. Without them, everything else doesn't build and steamroll from theirs. That's right. If I don't have success at that level, as a result of these kids winning,

fighting for me, trusting in me, believing in me, going to tournaments, you know, keeping them in the gym. And the kids are all talking to other kids. I noticed that a lot in the book where one guy talks to someone else and he talks to Lennox Lewis, and Lennox Lewis talks to Egerton, Marcus. I love that kind of connection. It's basically an oral tradition.

It's, you know, before we sent WhatsApp and text messages, we actually talk to each other, word of mouth, yeah. And that meant a lot, and that meant a lot. And I wanted to do that. I wanted those guys to be there at the, at the ceremony because I knew that that's who I wanted to say thank you to. Because without them, all of this stuff that I'm so privileged to have now doesn't happen because maybe my career doesn't take off.

If I don't have success at that amateur level, if you don't have success at the beginning, there's no way you're going to have success later, right? And there's no shortcuts in our business. I've learned that a lot. I've worked up. My old friend who you know, Cliff Thorburn once said, he says, I've worked 16 hours a day for the last 25 years. to become an overnight success.

I use overnight success all the time. I love it because you did become sort of an overnight success. In a way, suddenly you're here. The glove company is going unbelievable. Fighters are wearing them everywhere. And then you're working. I'm at the big fights.

And it's like, where did he come home? I'll tell you where he came from. I tell you where he came from 40 years or 35 years of graft on anonymous show with anonymous fighters. Talk to me a little bit about Otis Grant. The world champion you had who was dead. defending his title that night. That was not defending it.

Fighting for it. Yeah, fighting for it. Because he already fought for him but didn't win it. Excuse me. Yeah. We got a draw with Lonnie Bradley. That's right.

And then when Bradley pulled out because he had a detached rett, I believe, so he gave up the belt. WBO middleweight. WBO title. So they made the fight with us and Ryan. And I thought, okay, obviously this is going on.

Frank's bringing the fight to Sheffield. This is like a crowning moment. The kids from Sheffield, you know, we got the next stack again. Is it worth us getting on a plane? That's right. Deck is stacked against us. Otis will always, and I said this at the Hall of Fame,

will always be the highlight of my career because it was the first, Buncey. He was the first guy. I had him since he's a kid. He was 13. I was 20 when I started training him. And we would dream of fighting for the world title. And I always said to him,

I remember back in the day I said to him, now whatever you do, you're either going to be a middleweight or you're going to be a heavyweight because there's no money in the light heavyweight division. You got to be one or the other. Cruiser didn't exist. Yeah.

And, you know, as kids, now this is young. We're young kids. We're dreaming of this, right? Yeah. And it came true. I didn't realize you were that young when you first started working with him. I started coaching when I was 18. So, you know, I was, and then two years later I started coaching others.

You were precocious in the gym. I know there's some good stories in the gym about you, yeah? Vinny Curdo gave me that chance. Yeah, that's a great line. Vinny Curdo made, gave me the belief that I could do what I could do. Is that when he tells all the old guys in the gym? You know, you guys, you don't know anything. This kid over here knows more than you, and you looked about seven.

But yeah, I was, and I'm standing there, you know, my mouth is open on what? Like, this is in front of everybody. Now, you can imagine how this did not endear me well to the fixtures that were in the gym at that time. Because they're fixtures. Yeah, of course, you know, and I jump into that role. But Otis was the first, and I'm glad to say that I've run into Ryan a few times when I've been back in the UK. Yeah, he's a lovely boy, man. Great.

And, you know, we had history together. And so Otis becomes my first world champion. And to make, you know, to prove it's not a fluke, I develop another kid into the middleweight division in David Lemieux, you know. So it's not bad getting two guys from day one into a world title. It's not bad. If this is the first time you listen to Russ, you'll be bowled over by his enthusiasm. You think I'm infusiastic. This guy's enthusiastic. What really comes across in the book and what I love about it is the enthusiasm, as you've sort of touched on it there with the kids that went to see you at the induction at the Hall of Fame.

is that you can be as excited about working with Alexander Usik as you are with working with some kid who's in a Canadian regional title fight who's twice failed to win the Canadian title and your entire heart and souls involved in that fight where you're making three and a half P, you're making $2 as opposed to a massive night with Alexander. That's what I love about the book, man.

And that's what I love about the sport that I'm in and what I do. And I think there was my assistant trainer mentioned at time in the book saying that I was supposed to work with John Pascal on an evening, and we had an amateur show that afternoon. I know where you were going. The amateur show, and then headed over to do Jean-Pascale. So that's another thing that I did in the ceremony was,

and I made it a point to say that it doesn't matter, whether it's at the pro level or amateur level, the thrill of victory and having your guy win and being in the corner with a kid who wins, that's the high that we keep chasing. as coaches and trainers, you know, that high that you're going to. Walking out of the dressing room into a big arena, walking out into a small arena.

It doesn't matter. It's just that moment of getting them ready. So, of course, what you're doing, and people sometimes overlook this in our boxing business, is what you do when you're working with those amateurs, whether they're 13-year-old boys or 23-year-old men, is you're learning the ways of boxing people. So as you go through life and you start working with guys that are slightly better,

there's almost nothing they do that you haven't seen or you can't call on your memory bank. You get a sort of sense and a gut. All fighters are different, aren't they? Let's get it right. 50 fighters could have 50 different routines. They could all be unbeated in 10 fights. But in my opinion, they could all have 50 different routines.

Is that a fair comment, Russ? Yeah, absolutely. And up until, it's funny you should say that, because up until I started working with Lomachenko and Usik, I thought. So you're just name-jopping now, Russ. No, but there's a reason why. Go on you allowed.

Because I appreciate that. but because I thought I had seen it all up to them. Like I had seen everything. I had seen the work. I saw what fighters did. I had been all over the world. I had watched fighters have success at the Olympic level, at the professional level.

But I, my eyes went wide when I saw the work ethic that Lomachenko and Ussick put into their training and how many theories they dispelled, or urban legends, if you will, that we had in the West about when a, fighters should rest, what you should do. And, no, don't work him too hard. And you've been to go to the game for 25, 30 years at this point?

That's right. You're 30. Yeah, 30. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, before you start telling any Usyk and Lomachenko stories, which obviously I want to hear, so do the people listening and I said they're in the book, but I want you

to tell them. How did you, how did Russ Amber suddenly fall into Ussik's orbit and Lomachenko's orbit? How did it happen? Well, that's actually a pretty cool story. and I think I mentioned it in the book, which I got to give credit because I don't do it enough. Like Paul Harrietha really was able to...

He's captured you, brother. Yeah, no he has. I'll give Paul his due, yeah. Yeah, he did do that really well, and it almost feels like it was me, and he wrote it. I had a friend of mine who was working with me at Rival, who had been in contact with Egus Clemens,

who was the manager of Lomachenko. Yeah. One of the top operators from the old Eastern Block. Yeah. I don't know how the... conversation came about, but something to the extent of they need somebody, they're looking for somebody to wrap Lomachenko's hands because he's had three pro fights so far in each one, he's had hand injuries, you know, and it's set him back.

Smaller, tight of gloves, all of the usual stuff. Whatever it is, right? So, um, my friend recommends me. I get a call from Eges, who's in Montreal with Sergei Kovalev, who's getting set to fight Jean Pascal. Yeah. Calls me up. says, can I see you?

We would like to do this. Tell me the story. I want you to wrap Lomachenko. We want to try it out. Can you come to the hotel? I said, I guess I can't come to the hotel, but I'm going to be at the bell center at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

No one will be there. I'll be in Jean-Pascals' dressing room. If you come over to the bell center, no one will be there. I'll be happy to do it then. So that was my audition. So Lomachenko comes to the dressing room. On the day of the fight?

On the day of the fight. I wrap him up. He tries the gloves on. He sees happy with. everything. All is good. They bring me out for the fight, which was, I believe, might have been on the Pac-Yal-Mayweather cards. I don't remember.

I don't remember the name of the guy he fought. Brought me out for there. We walked back to the dressing room after the fight was over, and he reaches out, puts his hand out, and says, welcome to Team Lomachenko. Get in, son. That's how... Then Usik follows there because of the collections.

And I like to think that, you know, I'm there because they saw something. They liked what I did. So, That was good. And from that, when you're working with a fighter, wrapping his hands, working on his hands, all those years of practice, all those years, you're still dealing with a man's personal weapons.

So you've still got to, can you read hands? And I don't know that sounds like a joke, but can you read hands? Yeah, well, I don't, read is one thing. I know what you're saying. I look at a hand and I say, okay, I can wrap this one easily. My favorite, one of my two favorite guys to rap are Liam Smith, and Callum Smith. Like their hand just fits perfectly,

the bandage goes around, great, there's never any issues. Then you have others who have problems with their hands. Maybe damage, previous damage. That's right. You know, Lomachenko, for example, one of his hands doesn't close completely. I'm showing you this here because I know we got the TV cameras on.

It's a left hand sort of not fully clenched. Not closing all the way. He just can't close it because he's had surgery on it. So I had to wrap the hand wrap accordingly that when you see his hand wrap, you wouldn't know that there's a, So you put some filter inside. I make sure that the padding comes out a little wider

to make the front area flush instead of being at an angle. So yeah, there are things. So you're right. I mean, reading it was, you put that well. You have to ask him, you have anything I should know about. I'm about to rub your hand now and massage it. Anything I should, no, everything is good.

So when you're preparing Alexander Ousek for a big world heavyweight title fight, from the moment he sits down in front, you've already put your strips out on the wall, you've got your kit ready and whatever you've got. in your private Russ Amber wrapping bag, pouch, whatever. How long from the moment he sits down? 30 minutes.

30 minutes? To finish, yeah. And that's intense 30 minutes, isn't it? That's pretty good. That's like you're working constantly. Yeah, working constantly. Has that got faster the better you've got? No.

So it's always been about 30 minutes. Yeah, there's no way you can rush what I do, you know? Like, you just can't rush it. The steps that it takes just has to be done at that pace. Water boils at a certain degree. It doesn't boil faster. know, paint dries at a certain temperature. It just has to go on the way it goes on and the way I do it, unfortunately.

And because I do something that other trainers don't do is that I layer the gauze right off the roll when I make the pad for the knuckles. A lot, most, almost everybody, nobody I know is alive still does it like I do it, because I learned from the old school. But now they make the pad independently. So they start wrapping the hats. Then they attach it. They put this big, thick pad over the front.

I layer it one by. one by one by one right off the roll. It's an art form watching. Have you got any film if you watch it? And that sounds like an odd thing. Does film exist? There might be. Well, I wouldn't be the one taking it, right? I wouldn't ask someone to film it, brother. It's this

history. You're wrapping Oussick's hands. I'm sure somebody has it. I'm sure somebody has it. We've got to get it. I'm talking to you as your friend here. Somebody's watching. There's cameras in the room all the time, but I don't know who does that. Because I remember it last December or November, sometime

that you got called to work with AJ because obviously he started working with Team Usick. And didn't you have to go up to his room and wrap his hands a couple of days? We saw you in the hotel and you were going or you'd just been or you were just going. So that was that, were you just pulled in them because he was now working with Usik? Yes. That, when they were deciding the new coroner for him with a new trainer, it was the Usick team who suggested that I worked the coroner. So when they asked me, I said, yeah, I'd be happy to do it.

And I've known AJ for a while. And I like him and he's worn our gloves. He wore our gloves for his championship wins and everything. So that was an honor for me prior to even knowing him

he did that, which was really nice. So when they asked me, I took the opportunity and now we did it again yesterday. I went into the gym, wrapped his hands again. I don't want to,

I know I'm not doing this in a nice linear route. I don't really care. But have you ever really struggled to wrap a guy's hands? You know, has they ever been, like, just... AJ's the worst.

Yeah, good. AJ's the pickiest of the bunch. Oh, it's not right. Oh, 100%. No doubt about it. And that's brilliant. He's going to listen to this and I told him yesterday. We don't care.

He's tough. He is particular and picky and do this and do that and do it. Okay, brother, I'm doing the best I can here. Let's try to make it work. This is why we can and can't. And I told him a story the other day. Go and tell me. I said, you know, when I watched you on TV fighting and then the fights over.

over and you're doing an interview or whatever and I see your wraps, I would say to myself, gosh, I wish they'd bring me in, you know, I would do a really good job on his hand wraps because those are pretty bad. But now I realize they're bad because of you. Whoever was doing them for them, you were causing them problems. It was your fault. That's right. Russ, we talked about that excitement at being in a dressing room with all fighters and that little walk to the ring or the big walk to the ring and then getting into the ring. Talk to me about one or two of the most amazing fight nights you've had. either as the trainer or as the man that's there, you know, in charge of wraps.

So you're just like one of the seconds in the corner. Give me one of you, give me a couple of the most amazing nights. And then give me a low as well. Okay, well, is it fair? We're going to leave Otis out of it because I've already said that's the highlight of my career. So nothing, all the big fights I've ever worked, nothing's going to replace that. Because that was the first that it was from a baby on. And it was from the baby.

Let's leave Otis out of it. So one of them was Jean-Pascal against Adrian Diaccon. It was like Jean-Pascar. Yeah. The remaining who was born in the baby. based in Canada. So it's two Canadians, essentially. And I was with him in the corner when he fought Carl Frotch. What a fight. That was one of the great neglected fights that. Absolutely. So Jean's provided me with a lot of thrills and chills. And I mentioned him in the Hall of Fame because that was special for him.

Being in Callum's corner when Callum beat George Groves. In Jeddah. In Jeddah. This is my favorite story. And I was so proud to tell this when I did the podcast. with the Smith brothers. You know, I was so proud to tell this. Did all four show up on that occasion? What's that? Did all four show up on that occasion? Yeah, yeah, all four.

Because Liam's been going missing. No, no. They're thinking of second Liam and using David Price. No, no. It's a family crisis. No, he was there. He had to be there. Otherwise, he'd know I might say something

about his snooker playing ability. Oh, yeah, good point. Yeah, so he was bright. But when Callum fought, you know, I remember, like, just before he went, just before he knocked out George, he stayed on. on the stool and Joe Gallagher got out of the ring

but I stayed up on the apron for just a second longer and I slapped him on the chest and I said throw the left hook throw the left hook nice and he goes out there throws a left hook fights over we like that I like that you know that's obviously going to be special being in being in beefy's corner when he won the world

title and when he beat you bank as well when he beat Jesse Vargas yeah I've had a lot of runs he was just some good fights beefy we overlook Liam Smith a little bit you know we look at Callum and Stevie fell a bit short and pulls the character but Liam was in some unbelievable fights. Yeah, yeah, he was, he could fight. And he was, for me, as a throwback type trainer,

he's the style I like. He's a throwback fighter. Yeah, he should have been, if I had been managing him, I had to try to make a deal with television to say, we got to put this guy on in black and white. You know, we're going to show it on the air in black and white because he's a guy that you could have put. Plains, plain shorts.

Yeah, you could have put him on in the 50s and he'd have been fine. Usik against Fury, obviously, you know, I mean, how could that not be for the, you know, As a kid, you know, my first contact with boxing is Ali and Fraser and, you know, for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. And, you know, I'm dreaming of being in boxing, right? And now I'm in the corner of a fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. You did just to prove that we're not working in the linear route.

You did attend one of those kind of mythical fights in the 70s and 80s. You did actually attend the Duran and Sugar Island. It was in Montreal. You're actually at that fight. That's one of those kind of ten fights from the 17th. is an 80s that's just iconic. Of course. You look back on them, it's almost,

it looks like it's, it looks like a film. When you see clips of it, it looks like it's a Hollywood production. Right. And you were part of it. Yeah, and you know, the sad thing about it was the,

the memory of that, of a great night of fight. I like that fight was, you know, a fantastic fight. And it was a lot closer than people think, oh, Duran won. Yeah, well, he didn't, he didn't win easy. It wasn't a breeze.

Oh, no, it wasn't. We all forget that. You absolutely like. People forget that. Oh, he beat Leonard. Yeah, well, he didn't. He had to fight life and death to beat Leonard, okay? But on that night, Cleveland Denny fell into a coma after fighting Gaytown Heart. I only read that in the book.

I remembered it years ago, forgot it for 20 years, and I was stunned at that. Just tell the story again. Yeah, Cleveland Denny fought Gate Down Hard for the Canadian lightweight title and collapsed in the 12th and final round. And I remember it rained that night, and the rain was coming in when Cleveland. It still affects you to rain. It's a fight night. Yeah, it does. On a fight night, it bothers me that.

And the thing that made it worse was that I saw Cleveland training in the gym leading up to the fight. It was at the Olympic club. He was training at the Olympic club and getting ready. And I'm watching him work out. And I remember how that summer was a particularly hot summer in June. We were on the third floor of an old tar roof building. So you can just imagine how hot it is. And this guy's wearing garbage bags when he's training.

He was in white. Bro, when he took off, when he cut the tape off the sleeves, It wasn't just a few droplets that are coming out. It was a gush of water as if you pour a bottle of water down in there. And I thought, this can't be right. As a result, Buncie, for that, because of that, I have vowed, I never let any of my fighters train in anything other than t-shirts and a pair of shorts. Just gym clubbing, yeah.

Yeah. Now, obviously, on the night before a fight, you know, you've got to make weight. Okay, you've got to take off an extra pound, fine. That's different, yeah. But actually, but in the gym, I never let my fighters. do anything like that, like overdressing or anything. I never. Cotton clothes, that was it.

And if you wanted to sweat, work. So that was a low point, but not in a fight that you were directly involved with. But obviously, you knew enough about it. We've done enough of the highs and lows and we've sung your praises. Give us a bad night that you've had in the ring or attached to a fighter. Other than that, can be at any level. I don't care. I think the worst night was when Otis got stopped by Quincy Taylor.

Who was a good fight at Quincy Taylor? It was a good fight, but the thing was that I didn't like the fight from the very beginning because I knew Otis had problems with Southpaws, you know, and I knew this was a problem that even if he, if we would win, Otis was not going to look good. I could just, I just know the kid since he's 13 years old. He's a Southpaw, and I know that Southpaws were a problem for him, as they are for usually. Southpaws don't like fighting Southpaws. So that bothered me. That, that marked me forever, I think. That hurt me the most, and it made me really. realize that the next time I don't want something, I'm going to listen. I'm going to listen to my heart. That hurt me. That was the worst one. You know, there are, you know, the loss to Egerton Marcus at the box office was not good.

I would have had two guys, you know, two brothers. It would have been the first time in Canadian history that I had two brothers going to the Olympics. And I, for all intent and purpose, I really believe he would have done as good as Egerton did, you know. And in the book, you can hear your tears in that piece about when Otis loses to Egerton. Yeah. You can really hear your tears in that.

That was something I also learned that when you score a huge victory, there is a coming down period from that. And that's why I understand when fighters don't go into immediate rematches right away. And that's what happened to Leonard and Duran. Duran beat Leonard, yes. Tough fight, but beat him. But Leonard wanted to make that up. He got back in the gym right away.

You know he was running the next day. You just know it, don't you? That's right. Duran was now parting, was on an emotional high. Yeah, yeah. Bro, I mean, to beat Leonard in Montreal, right? Like, this was huge for him. He'd run his gold medal.

And six months, less than six months later, he wasn't even in the fight. You know, you just can't reach that mental high again, you know? A couple of things to end up, and it's been absolutely delight and a pleasure talking to you. Is there a fighter over the last 25 years who you wish you had worked with? Not because he had bad hands or she had bad hands. You just wish. You like their mentality. You like their vibe.

You like their energy. You like this stuff. Is there a guy you'd like to have worked with them last? 30 years or so? I think Roy would have been that. I would have liked to, I worked with Roy, but not when he was in his prime.

I would have liked to work with Roy when he was a prime Roy Jones. Yeah. And him and I have became such good friends because I challenge him on things. We argue about stuff. We're in public arguing. We argue about boxing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so do you. But it's not good. Yeah. And we, you know, we argue about boxing and it would have been nice to have worked with him. Absolutely.

And what about this is, this is not the last question. This is the second. This is the penultimate question. Is there a fighter and you can even name him or not name him who you decided not to work with after being invited to work with? Is there one? You didn't like once you were invited in a camp by the manager or the trainer you went, you know what? I don't think I fancy you, son.

That's a very, very good question. And thank God I don't have an answer to say yes there is. So no, that hasn't happened. I've been lucky with that. Most of the guys I work with I really enjoy working. You know, I really enjoy working with. And another question, we'll stop the Q&A in a second. Have you ever had a situation where one guy's on the phone at 4 p.m. in the afternoon,

giving you a date for a fight? And then five minutes later, another guy calls you up giving you a date for a fight. And they're not in adjoining buildings. They're in a, there might be worlds apart. What do you do? What do you have to deal with it? I'll give you two scenarios that happen. I give you two scenarios.

I started working with Shakur Stevenson when he fought Josh Padley. That's what I've brought on. And after working that fight, his grandfather, Wally Moses, just me and him hit it off incredibly. And he says, Russ, I want you in that corner with me all the time. And he was one of the guys that was really appreciative about having me there. And that meant a lot to me. Because it was a hard camp to infiltrate in terms of being accepted.

Right. Like, who's this guy, right? And then the camp fell out, the fight fell out of bed and all sorts of stuff. Happen do you remember, yeah. So I come in now, Bacaram Mortizaliev is saying. set to fight Josh Kelly in the UK. I tell Mortazali, and I like Bachram. Bachram's a wonderful guy.

And I enjoy working with him, and I've known him a long time. I said, Roma, I said, you can't have that fight on the same day. Shakur is fighting on that night. I'm working with Chikor's not fighting in Newcastle. No, and he's not fighting in Newcastle. It was in New York. It was the Zapata fight, I believe. It was mistaken.

Or was it the low, it might have been Tiofimo fight. Anyways, I said, you can't do it. I said, I'm committed to that fight. Oh, sorry, Russ, that's the date we're doing it. So, of course, because I was first, Shakur asked me first, I gave the yes to him before that out. But the worst one was this one.

And this has remained a scar in my life. Callum Smith is set to fight Arthur Better B.F. Yeah. In Quebec City. And I had been, I worked, I've been with Callum virtually his entire career, was with him in his world champion. championship win was with him when he made his debut in the U.S.

You know, I'd known the whole family. Yeah. And Better Beav since day one, since he came to Canada, I worked his corner. I was in every fight. Oh, shoot. So crisis time. Big time crisis time. And I said to Callum and I said to them, I said, look, I can't give you my best.

You understand? I can't be in the dressing room wrapping you and telling you how I want you to be the other guy. And be in Ross Amber. I said, I can't. So I chose to disqualify myself from working either camp. No way. Yeah, so I didn't work either guy's corner that night. Left for training camp with Ussick,

because I didn't even want to be in the same city when the fight was going on, because I didn't want to be in attendance, and someone sees me talking to somebody, oh, you favored him, you very. I didn't even want to be there for that, and that hurt me a lot, because my relationship, of course,

with the Smiths was very, very close, you know. And in hindsight, you know, as a result, because I didn't work better BF's corner, he fired me from ever working with him again. So I've never worked with him since. Calham didn't, you know? And you still work with Callum. And I still work with Calum and still would dismiss. But at least

I go to bed, whatever happened, I go to bed knowing that I did what I thought was the best and what was the fairest thing to do because I'm not going to work against my friend and I considered both of them my friend. So that was the highest level fight where that happened. And I had a few other lower level fights when that happened, but

yeah, that one hurt. I've got a finished with a little bit more Alexander Usik. You talked about, you know, what you learned from working with Lomachenko and what you learned from working with Usik. I've seen you around Usik, or rather I've seen Usik around you. And it's clearly a relationship

of unbelievable respect. Just give us an insight into life in an Usik camp over the last couple of weeks of camp. As we're coming to the end, you know... Well, because he's not... Because he's a heavyweight now, there's never an issue of making weight. So when Guys aren't making weight.

They generally say him in good mood. That's right. So that's, I think, a very important thing. I'll put it to you this way. And I think, Buncie, I might have told you this before. Doesn't matter. I'll take it again. You're going to have to, because I don't know of a better compliment to give.

As a father of a daughter, Usik is the kind of guy you want your daughter to bring home. That's a great lot of. I can't put it any better than that. You know, and there's not, you can't say that about a lot of people. but he's just, he's genuine. He is authentic. He's, he's, it's not a show.

It's not for the press. What you see from him, when he's joking with you guys, that's what he does with us in camp. That's just him. There's one thing I did pick up in on the book. You talk about sparring. It's quite early in the book. It's a really great line.

You say there's two schools of fault with sparring. One is the, you know, it's near enough a technical spa and you're just learning things. You're learning things. And the other is you really go for it. Now, if I, if I ask, most people, if I said to them, there's two types of sparring, and I named the two types of sparring, and I said to most people, which one does Zollogs under

Usik do? They would all choose the technical spa, and it's not, is it? It's the other one. It's the grueling 12 hard rounds with people being transported out every three rounds, and him just growing in confidence and sparing nobody, unless he hurts them, but sparing nobody. Well, that's why we keep

put it recycling guys in, because he won't, he doesn't want, and I don't believe in Jim Wars, you know, where you put two guys in there for eight rounds and they're just kicking the cowboy heck out of each other, that's not right. But when you have, when you're putting in sparring

partners two rounds at a time and they're fresh and you're making the champion work and you're working him, working him. There's not a war going on but there's an intensity that's going on and you have to replicate that intensity that you're going to face. Of course he loves it. All great fighters love that. All great fighters

love that. They want to work. They want to be able to be pushed. So I never like to see guys abuse other guys. I don't like to see great fighters abusing mediocre fighters in the gym and battering them from pillar to post and these guys are taking these shots just because they need a pay day. I hate that.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So Ussing never does that. But we make him work. And I'm there, you know, saying, okay, I got a thousand for anybody who drops Ucic let's go and I'm just making jokes about that guy. And you still have. You haven't spent your thousand yet. Unless you have, unless you want to tell us, don't worry about that. You haven't. I know that.

No, no. No, no. Russ, listen, it's been a delight and a pleasure talking with you. Let me just tell you, the book is called Russ Amber, unrivaled, a boxing memoir. Paul Harry Ether helped you put it together, four word by Thomas Hauser. I was very lucky to get Thomas to write down. That's really good. It's a gem of a book. This is Usik.

Russ is magic. Here's my friend. I'd like to do this in a Ukrainian accent, but I get in trouble. The best of the best, boxing is as much an art form as a third. physical confrontation and Russ understands that. You do understand. So the first thing that struck me when I read it, I remember calling Paddy to producer up and say,

Pat, you're going to love this book. No, you're going to hate it because it's just full of all these great amateur nights and it's full of all these obscure names. And you talk about guys, as I say, who twice failed to win the Canadian featherweight title with the same passion you talk about Alexander Usick. Only boxing men do that, son. And that's what I wanted to be my whole life, Bunch.

He was to be a boxing guy. And, you know, I think we, we did okay. We did okay. So I'm, but you can get this at rivalboxing.com in the UK. That can be sent out overnight. And I'm really proud of it. And I hope my biggest fear was writing this and leaving people out. And I hope I didn't leave people out.

And I hope that the people that meant a lot to me and that helped me along the way, you know, are mentioned in it. And that was the most important thing because you don't get here by yourself, right? you don't get here by yourself. So I hope I did that justice. You don't get here by yourself. That could be the sub-tile. Russ, it's been an absolute pleasure and a delight talking to you. I've been Steve Bunce, and this is Five Live Boxing.

This goes beyond what the KGB did back in the days. Conspiracy theories and the Football World Cup. Is there ever one without the other? Well, I've been digging into one of the very best back in 1994. A guy from Iraq gets a red card for a, you know, a dubious tackle. I'm James Montague, and from BBC 5 Live, this is Sports Strangers Crimes Presents,

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