With opportunity knocking early in career, Ian Russell ready to break through: 'I know I'm going to win'

Russell will challenge Jon Cunningham for vacant light heavyweight title in main event of CFFC 155 on Friday, June 19

Ian Russell could be forgiven if wanted to tap the brakes a little bit on professional MMA career. After all, "The Carpenter" wasn't even really watching the sport as recently as four years ago, and now he's about to headline an event on UFC FIGHT PASS and compete for vacant gold.

Slowing down, however, isn't even a consideration for the 26-year-old prospect.

"I don't think a lot of people get this opportunity this early on in their career," Russell said. "It's just cool to see. I'm really enjoying the process, and I'm at the perfect gym. They've done it for years and years and years, and they know exactly what it takes to go five rounds and what you need to be doing, so I'm pretty grateful for that."

Russell's journey began when his of college football ended, and the middle linebacker still had the itch to compete. He jumped in full throttle, and it didn't take long for him to find his way to the famed American Kickboxing Academy.

"After (football) I was just like, 'I've got to do something,' and so I started looking," Russell recalled. "I was over in Fresno. I went to a junior college over there and I was looking for gyms. I was like, 'I want to fight, so I looked up gyms back home and there was like one, like an hour away from my house, and then I looked up gyms where I was currently at the time, and there was like 20, and I said, 'All right. I guess I'm staying here.'

"I walked into a gym, and then like eight months later I had my first fight, and then literally the day after my fight, I called AKA and was like, 'Hey, like, what does it take to get there?'"

Joanna Mendez, wife of AKA head coach Javier Mendez, opened the doors to the facility, and the journey began in earnest.

Russell found success as amateur, going 5-1 with three stoppage victories before turning pro late last year and taking home a decision win over a 12-fight veteran. Then in April, Russell made his CFFC debut, earning a first-round knockout in impressive fashion.

Russell admits he wasn't entirely satisfied with his performance but credits the crew at AKA had him well prepared.

"I felt good," Russell said. "I felt like I was a little twitchy. I wasn't as calm as I wanted to be on the striking, but it kind of makes sense because we knew he was going to be a big wrestling threat, and so I didn't want to overextend on anything because you overextend, you just get taken down, and so I just didn't want that to happen.

"I know I only have two professional fights, but the experience I get in the gym here with the killers that I train with is just next-level unreal, and so I feel like a lot of the reason why I'm able to do what I do is because of my training partners – Theo Haig, Chuck Campbell, Nick Stemmet, Kyle Kenfack – and the amazing coaching staff, Ron Keslar, Jeremy Mendez, Coach Clint (Coronel), all of them. They're the reason I am who I am today right now."

With former CFFC light heavyweight champion Luke Fernandez now in the UFC, the organization was looking to crown a new champion, and Russell's name was at the top of the contenders' list. When he was offered the opportunity, there was zero hesitation.

"It was amazing," Russell said. "I said yes right away. I never want to turn anything down, especially when it's moving in the right direction, but shout out to my manager and coach, Ron Keslar. I mean, this guy, he has connections for days. He gets the best fights. Dude's a knowledge book, man, and basically he just kinda explained it where it's just like the stars are aligning, and it is what it is. It worked out perfectly.

"I got a good finish in there, and then the light heavyweight champion just moved on. He got moved up, and then boom, and so it kind of just fell right into place. Stars aligned, and so I'm just thankful to God that this is happening for me."

Russell (2-0 MMA, 1-0 CFFC) now headlines CFFC 155, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from Philadelphia's 2300 Arena on Friday, June 19. There, he'll take on another up-ad-coming athlete in Jon Cunningham (3-1 MMA, 0-0 CFFC) with vacant gold on the line.

Generally, CFFC champs get quick calls for opportunities at the next level, but Russell knows this early in his career, it may take a few defenses before he gets that opportunity. For that reason, he doesn't see a reason to look at anything beyond June 19.

"I don't wanna look past anybody," Russell said. "This guy that I'm about to go fight, he's training just as hard as I am. He's doing everything he needs to do. He thinks he's going to go in there and beat me, and I know I'm going to go in there and beat him, you know what I mean? So it's just like I can never overlook anything, and from what I understand now is that if I just keep winning, I will get to where I want be, you know? So I never want to just look past that. I've got to think this fight right now is all that matters."

It's a healthy attitude to maintain in a budding career that seems to show great promise. Bigger opportunities may lie in the future, but for now, the spotlight of the main event will shine on Cunningham on June 19, and he's certain he'll be able to deliver in the moment.

"I'm going to go out there and do what I feel is necessary in the moment," Cunningham said. "I'm going to listen to my corner. We've got gameplans. We've got all this stuff, but again, every gameplan goes out the window when you get punched in the face, you know what I mean? Especially when we're big, 205 guys.

"Do I want to go get a knockout in the first round? Hell yeah. Am I ready to go grapple for five rounds? Definitely. Like, I'm ready for everything. I don't care where it goes. All I know is that I'm going to get my hand raised at the end of it. That's it. I don't know anything else."