Anybody know much about this guy? Up and coming, undefeated Cruiser, seems to have a good amateur pedigree. Any of his fights been on TV or have people seen him fight live etc? Will he be a legitimate force in a couple of years?
Got some skill, he needs to get physically stronger though. He still hasn't gotten "grown man" strong.
Cool, randomly came across him looking at someone else. The US is exceptionally weak at Cruiser for some reason.
Watched him live 3x so far, he's a decent talent. I expect him to be a legit top 10 CW in 5 years. Think he has a good chance to develop a strong following over that time.
It's weird that the division isn't more popular here than it is. The economics of that make life as a U.S. based cruiser slim pickings unless the fighters prepared to travel to Europe. Staying here usually results in smaller purses and less frequent access to premium network fights to showcase in since Top Rank and GBP don't maintain much of a CW stable. That's a big reason you see a lot of guys just say screw it and jump up to heavyweight once they get to world level at cruiser here.
He actually grew up just a few miles from me. I followed him on his way up the amateur ranks and I watched him quite a few times at the Golden Gloves in Grand Rapids. He was so starkly and obviously superior to the competition it was genuinely staggering. I also got to closely follow Andre Dirrell, Peter Quillin, J'Leon Love, and Courtney Burton when they made their way through the amateurs. Shimmell was on par with all four. Stylistically he reminds me a bit of 'Baby' Joe Mesi. I.E. a surprisingly mobile white guy with stubby arms, fasts hands, and deceptive power from his speed and excellent timing. He has an excellent skillset but on the downside: stamina, defensive lapses, and a history of hand injuries.
If he does settle at cruiser, (I think he should) he will have trouble finding fights to make him a box office smash, he is already popular in West Michigan and within a year I can see him headlining Floyd's old haunt, the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. Valery Brudov or Felix Cora Jr. would be good measuring sticks for further progress. If he chooses to follow the yellow brick road at heavyweight I'm a lot less optimistic for his future, unless he radically improves his stamina, strength, and defense.
Jordan is my grandson, he has just signed with Al Haymon. We hope that Jordan will be fighting top notch fighters in the near future. He has been sparring with 3 world title holders and his stamina is now one of his strong points.
Poor Jordan Shimmell ,std gave him the curse too, when std likes any yanky they alwasy turn out to be useless
