The latest stop on Russ Anber’s world tour wrapping hands and working corners takes him to Manchester on April 13, where he will assist the super flyweight Jack Turner ahead of his fight with Abdul Kesi Ngaoma.
Anber, who lives in Montreal, Canada had to celebrate his 63rd birthday with his wife Stephanie and daughter Julia ahead of time because he was required in Oleksandr Usyk’s training camp in Valencia, Spain to assist the Ukrainian’s preparations for his undisputed heavyweight title fight with Tyson Fury.
He flew to Germany to work the corner of the Russian Bakhram Murtazaliev’s IBF light-middleweight title victory over Jack Culcay on April 6, and after again returning to Usyk’s side, he will spend four days in Perth, Australia, where Usyk’s compatriot Vasyl Lomachenko – another of the fighters Anber has long worked with – fights George Kambosos Jr for the vacant IBF lightweight title on May 12. The Canadian will then join Usyk and his team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the May 18 date with Fury before potentially heading to Leeds to work with Josh Taylor for the rematch on May 25 with Jack Catterall.
“Overall, I’m in Valencia until the 7th of May,” Anber said from Portugal, where he was catching a connecting flight on his way to Spain from Montreal. “During the time I’m in Valencia, I’m scheduled to take two trips. Then come back to Spain.
“From Spain, I will be leaving for Australia, for Lomachenko, for four days. Who does that? I have no idea. I think I have two stops before getting there – it’s not going to be a nice, one-way stop. Immediately following that fight I get back on the plane to fly to Saudi to hook up with Team Usyk, who would have arrived roughly around the same time that Loma’s fight’s happening in Australia. I’m still waiting to hear word on if I’m with Taylor – I hope I am.
“I haven’t been to Australia since the Olympics [Sydney 2000]. One hundred per cent [I often struggle with jet lag]. Usually that happens in the UK. There must be something in the water or something. I don’t know why.
“When I go into training camp it’s a throwback to my days when my work was in the gym every day training fighters. They let me work with the sparring partners, and I get to work with Usyk, and through translation we have found out that myself and his head trainer Yuri [Tkachenko], seem to be very much on the same page. I say things to Usyk and then Usyk starts to laugh and I say, ‘Why are you laughing?’, and he says, ‘Because Yuri was saying the same thing’.
“We seem to be on the same wavelength in what we wanna do, and some of the tactics we want to use against Fury. I feel like I’m involved, and that I’m wanted, and that I’m listened to. It’s good.”
“I’m trying to get my wife to join me somewhere along this voyage,” continued Anber, who has predicted Turner will win a world title. He and Stephanie have been married for 24 years. “She’s the most understanding woman that God put on this earth, for what I do; for the amount of time that I’m gone.
“But she also knows that we have a hotel room. ‘If you wanna come, you can come – there’s no one stopping you from being here’. ‘You’re in training camp – I don’t want to bother you in training camp.’ I’m still trying to convince her.”