By Keith Idec

Gary Russell Jr. has what he considers a “great working relationship” with Al Haymon.

Russell told BoxingScene.com over the weekend that Haymon has delivered on every promise he has ever made to the WBC featherweight champion. But Russell is beginning to think that even Haymon, who runs Premier Boxing Champions, doesn’t want him to fight Leo Santa Cruz.

Russell (29-1, 17 KOs) has been calling out Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KOs) for three years, yet he still isn’t sure that their featherweight title unification fight will take place anytime soon.

“Man, I doubt that Leo, I doubt that the promoters and I’m actually starting to doubt that even Al wants to see that fight to happen,” Russell said. “Because they know once it happens, they know what the outcome’s gonna be.”

The outcome of Russell’s next fight, an optional title defense against Spain’s Kiko Martinez (39-8-2, 28 KOs), seems much more predictable than Russell-Santa Cruz. Showtime announced Friday that the Russell-Martinez match will air on the network as part of a tripleheader that’ll feature the heavyweight title bout between WBC champion Deontay Wilder and mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale on May 18 from Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The 30-year-old Russell, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, considers what will be his first fight in more than a year a way to keep sharp while he pursues the fight he really wants against Santa Cruz. Based on Santa Cruz’s last fight, however, Russell isn’t confident that the WBA “super” featherweight champion actually will agree to get in the ring with him later this year.

“How is it that the WBC gave Leo the mandatory spot to actually compete against me for the title,” Russell said, “and he says that he wants to take a tune-up fight with this guy that he just fought? That doesn’t even make sense. How can there possibly be a tune-up fight if the guy that he was fighting was an orthodox fighter? If he was tuning up for Mr. Gary Russell Jr., don’t you think it would’ve been in his best interests to fight a southpaw?”

Santa Cruz convincingly out-boxed Rafael Rivera (26-3-2, 17 KOs, 1 NC) in a 12-round fight FOX televised February 16 from Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

Rivera replaced an injured Miguel Flores on short notice. Houston’s Flores (23-2, 11 KOs) and Mexico’s Rivera both are right-handed fighters.

The next fight for Santa Cruz, a Mexican-American from Southern California, is not set. Russell would be surprised if Santa Cruz agrees to fight him, even if Haymon guarantees Santa Cruz a sizeable seven-figure purse.

“Honestly, I’m getting the sense that the managers and promoters, they’re doing things in their power to protect Leo,” Russell said. “That’s my honest opinion. My honest thoughts is that these guys is willing to protect him. Leo Santa Cruz has a great fan base and his fan base will definitely follow him wherever he goes. And I think that the managers and the promoters, they play on that. That’s their cash cow. He’s generating a certain amount of revenue, no matter who he competes against, because a certain amount of viewership is gonna [watch him fight].

“The people from his ethnicity will actually come out and support him the way that I feel as though that they should. It’s not in these managers’ and promoters’ best interests to put a Leo Santa Cruz with a Gary Russell Jr., that’s already beat Leo before and also has the ability to be one of the more thorough ones in the sport of boxing, as far as the business is concerned.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.