Gary Russell Jr. vs. Joseph Diaz Jr. set for May 19th in Montreal

The previously ordered WBC featherweight title bout between champion Gary Russell Jr. and top contender Joseph Diaz Jr. is signed, sealed, and delivered. The two will duke it out on May 19th in Montreal as part of the Adonis Stevenson-Badou Jack undercard.

The fight will join the main event on Showtime.

Russell Jr. (28-1, 17 KO) has scored four easy victories since falling to Vasyl Lomachenko, most notably stopping Jhonny Gonzalez when the latter was riding high off of his KO of Abner Mares. He’s fought just once a year the last three years, though, so the hype train isn’t exactly chugging along at the moment.

He could change that with an strong performance against Diaz Jr. (26-0, 14 KO), a 2012 Olympian with a solid résumé but no signature victories. He did beat Jayson Velez in fight #2 of Velez’s four-fight skid, though, and defeated two unbeaten fighters last year before knocking out former super bantamweight champ Victor Terrazas in February.