Jordan Shimmell, 16-0 with 13 KOs, will be boxing Joell Godfrey, 17-11-1, at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on September 11, 2014. Shimmell versus Godfrey is an 8 round cruiserweight bout on the Golden Boy Promotions and Mayweather Promotions card televised by Fox Sports 1. The show is being held in Las Vegas 2 days before the Mayweather-Maidana 2 rematch being shown on Showtime PPV. Therefore, there will be a lot of activity, fans and media in Las Vegas and the September 11th show is the lead-in show to the big PPV event on the 13th.
Joell Godfrey was one of the cruiserweight boxers on the reality television show “The Contender”, Season 4 and he has been a pro since 2006. Godfrey turned pro soon after losing a 5-0 decision to Eric Fields in the National Golden Gloves semi-finals while Jordan Shimmell lost a controversial 3-2 split decision to Fields in the finals of that same tournament in Omaha, NE (winning a silver medal). It was Jordan’s first National Golden Gloves appearance in his first year as an open-class boxer at 17 years of age. Jordan went on to win the National Golden Gloves in 2009 and won two more silver medals at the National Golden Gloves in 2010 and 2012 and two bronze medals in 2008 and 2011 losing by split decision in the bouts he lost in the National Golden Gloves tournaments. Jordan won the U.S. National Championships in 2009 and 2011 and earned a bronze medal in the 2011 U.S. Olympic Trials. Jordan Shimmell competed in numerous international competitions including the 2009 World Championships and won a gold medal in the 2007 World Golden Gloves, a bronze in the 2011 Pan Am Games Qualifier in Panama and a bronze in the 2011 World Cup of Petroleum Countries in Russia.
Joell Godfrey is coming off a big win in February of this year when he defeated Brazilian Marcus Vinicius de Oliveira who was 23-1-1 heading into the bout. Although Godfrey has lost 11 times, he has never been stopped and has always gone the distance including in 8, 10 and 12 round bouts. He has been very durable and has fought for the WBC Continental Americas and FecarBox titles.
In Jordan Shimmell’s most recent bout he won via disqualification at 2:31 of the 4th round on Friday, August 1, 2014 at the Little Creek Casino in Shelton, WA against Epifanio Mendoza who was 37-17-1 with 33 KOs. Since his loss to Jordan, Mendoza has won two in a row including scoring 3 knockdowns in an 8 round unanimous decision victory on August 29th over Cuban amateur star and two-time world amateur champion, Rey Recio who was 6-0 going into the bout.
Jordan Shimmell 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.
