Gary Russell, Jr. Named ESPN Prospect of the Year!

Undefeated Capitol Heights, MD featherweight "Mr." Gary Russell, Jr. has been named the ESPN.com Prospect of the Year by fight scribe Dan Rafael.

Rafael's comments in part: "Although the level of opponents Russell has faced so far as a pro isn't overly impressive, the way he has beaten them has been. He has barely lost a round and wasn't touched in a pair of HBO fights, a domination of last-minute opponent Leonilo Miranda in an eight-round decision in September and a spectacular first-round knockout of faded former bantamweight title challenger Heriberto Ruiz."

Just as an aside, the majority of Rafael's prospect of the year choices have turned out to be some special boxers since he started choosing them in 2000 when he was at USA Today. Among the boxers who have received this honor -- Miguel Cotto (2002), Jermain Taylor (2003), Andre Berto (2006) and Amir Khan (2007).

ESPN.com is the second website to name Russell as its prospect of the year, joining Sports Illustrated's website, SI.com. Ring Magazine also chose Russell as one of its 12 prospects to make a move in 2012.

Last year, BATB chose Russell and undefeated Brandywine, MD heavyweight Seth Mitchell as the co-prospects of the year. Both are now ranked by major governing bodies (Russell ranked 10th by the WBA and 12th by the IBF, Mitchell ranked 10th by the WBO) and are now technically contenders, so I will not consider them for this year's award. Mitchell was chosen one of the 25 prospects to watch for the second straight year by ESPN.

Speaking of this year's BATB awards -- they will be coming up very shortly, hopefully starting by the end of the week.