Shimmell
to Remain Amateur No Surprise National Champion Jordan Shimmell held a press conference on Tuesday, days after winning his second national championship this year. A press release issued by Shimmell’s trainer and father, Dennis, following the event and announcing that the 20-year old heavyweight would pursue an Olympic dream rather than turn pro came as no surprise.
Shimmell won the U.S. Championships in Denver last week, just a month after winning the National Golden Gloves in Salt Lake City. Reportedly winning both titles as a heavyweight had only been done five times before in the last eighty years. Winning either tournament can be a giant stepping stone to the pro ranks and winning both would likely bring even more lucrative promotional offers for the would-be professional. For those, like Shimmell, that choose to remain amateur a while longer the wins mean a number one USA Boxing ranking and the opportunity for a lot of international competition. In Shimmell’s case, the Grand Rapids-area boxer has his heart set on Olympics gold in 2012. Shimmell
won’t have long to wait for the international travel and competition
to start. He leaves in two weeks for Italy where he is scheduled
to fight 2008 Olympic silver winner Clemente Russo in Milan and,
two days later, in Usica. He will then divide his time between training
camps at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and competition
at the AIBA Worlds in September and USA vs England Dual a month
later in St. Louis. |
