Former two-division champion Tim Bradley stated recently that Russell (19-1, 17 KOs) turned down a $2 million offer from The Ring and WBO 140-pound champion’s promoters at Zuffa Boxing. Team Russell doesn’t know where rumors of that $2 million offer came from.

With that said, however, even if Stevenson’s team approached him with that sort of money, it wouldn’t be enough to entice the WBA 140-pound champion to take that fight.

“We are actively in negotiations with his team trying to see if they can come up with a reasonable, respectable figure for both fighters,” Russell said in an interview on FightHype.com’s YouTube channel. “It was never two million dollars. That wasn’t the figure that was presented, but no, two million dollars wouldn’t be enough. The figure that was actually presented wasn’t even that. That to me, was a red flag that maybe they really don’t want this fight. They just wanna say that they tried to make the fight.”

Stevenson, 29, is on the hunt for a top opponent. The accomplished southpaw from Newark, New Jersey, hasn’t been seen in the ring since he widely outpointed Teofimo Lopez to win The Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles January 31 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Over the last few months, Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs) has mentioned the likes of Raymond Muratalla, Devin Haney and Gervonta Davis, before officially calling out Russell through his X account.

Russell, a 30-year-old southpaw who defended his title by beating Japan’s Andy Hiraoka unanimously on points February 21 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, hopes that things get ironed out financially so he can face Stevenson next.

“I feel like right now would be a good time to make a fight like that happen, but it has to make sense,” Russell said. “That’s a great unification. I’m striving to be undisputed.”