Jordan Shimmell won via disqualification at 2:31 of the 4th round on Friday, August 1, 2014 at the Little Creek Casino in Shelton, WA. Jordan moved to 16-0 with 13 KOs in his 2 year pro career. The bout was scheduled for 8 rounds at cruiserweight on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights show. Jordan’s opponent was former world title challenger Epifanio Mendoza, now 37-18-1 with 33 KOs.
Jordan used his jab and his hand and foot speed to move in and land punches on Mendoza and then avoid any return fire. Jordan landed several strong jabs that snapped Mendoza’s head back in the first round and an overhand right that made Mendoza start holding plus several body punches.
With Jordan Shimmell clearly winning the first round, Mendoza started to use dirty tactics in the second round. Jordan landed his jab and several right hands plus a couple of strong body punches to clinch the second round, all the while Mendoza continued to miss with wild swings. The referee started to warn Mendoza for low blows, rabbit punches and hitting on the break in the second round.
In the thrid round Mendoza appeared to visibly fatigue which seemed to escalate his use of flagrant fouls. When fighting on the outside, Mendoza was clearly outgunned and he couldn’t handle Jordan’s speed and skills. Mendoza continued to clinch and while holding onto Jordan’s arms would punch Jordan in the back of the head, in the groin, in the back and even on the leg. The referee cautioned Mendoza several times and then took a point from Mendoza when Mendoza hit Jordan after the referee said break and stepped in to separate the two fighters. All of the legally landed punches in the third round were landed by Jordan and he began to clearly frustrate and hurt Mendoza with strong punches to the body and head.
The fourth round continued the progression of the third with Jordan landing some hard punches to Mendoza’s head and body and the Columbian boxer looking for a way out of the fight without getting knocked out. Mendoza continued to foul Jordan right in front of the referee with low blows, excessive holding and hitting Jordan as the referee was separating the two boxers. The referee took a second point from Mendoza and cautioned him that any further fouls would cause a disqualification. Mendoza obviously wanted to get DQ’d as he fouled Jordan again with another caution from the referee and finally he hit Jordan once again behind the head as the referee was breaking the two fighters which caused the referee to issue the disqualification and award Jordan the victory.
As has happened in all of Jordan’s pro fights, his opponent did not like getting hit by Jordan’s stinging jab, strong right and thunderous body punches. Mendoza like all of Jordan’s opponents could not penetrate Jordan’s tight defense and deal with Jordan’s fast hands and feet.
With the victory Jordan moves one step closer to fighting on television for all of his fans to watch. Jordan continues to move up in the world rankings and will soon be a top 10 world-ranked cruiserweight contender. Jordan Shimmell is the USBO Cruiserweight Champion and is ranked in all of the regional rankings.
For more information about Team Shimmell Boxing contact Dennis Shimmell, Jr. at dshimmell@prodigy.net or 616-560-8622 .
