Issue 106
October 2013
How heavyweight Shawn ‘The Savage’ Jordan is turning a championship career in college football into a bid for UFC gold
Alias: ‘THE SAVAGE’
Age: 28
Pro Debut: 2009
Pro Record: 15-4
Team: JACKSON-WINKELJOHN
Division: HEAVYWEIGHT
Height: SIX-FOOT
Style: ALL ROUNDER
It’s pretty tricky to do a backwards somersault. When you stand six-feet tall and walk around at 260lb it’s a full-on athletic accomplishment. Shawn ‘The Savage’ Jordan does it with ease. Almost as much ease as the way he dispatched his close friend Pat Barry with a series of ramrod right uppercuts topped off by a jackhammer fusillade of lefts that prompted a first-round stoppage at UFC 161. One wonders what he would do to someone he didn’t call a friend.
Shawn’s scary strength and agility come from the up-and-coming 28-year-old heavyweight’s sporting pedigree. Jordan played fullback at Louisiana State University and won two National Championships with the college football powerhouse.
As a youngster the Texas native excelled on the gridiron racking up 1,200 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns during his senior year at Riverside High School. He also bagged two state wrestling titles and was benching 315lb as a high school freshman. After his wrecking-ball style failed to catch the eye of NFL scouts, and they snapped up close friends and fellow Tigers’ fullback Jacob Hester (Denver Broncos) and quarterback Matt Flynn (Oakland Raiders), it seemed most likely Jordan would have to put his degree in kinesiology (the scientific study of human movement) with a minor in chemistry to good use. He was more of a bulldozer than a Ferrari.
But bulldozers have their uses too. And agile bulldozers are very rare.
“I loved playing football and if I could have continued playing I would have,” Jordan tells Fighters Only exclusively. “Right now I am able to look back with confidence and realize it wasn’t part of God’s plan for my life, but at the time it was extremely hard and almost devastating. I was a 23-year-old who felt like I’d failed. Now I see that it was preparing me for more and different things out of my life. That experience forced me to grow up a lot pretty quickly. I am thankful that I’m still a professional athlete, just not exactly the kind I thought I’d be.”
Enter mixed martial arts. “I grew up playing football and as I was finishing my playing career at LSU a good friend of mine, Trey Beall, and I were discussing what the next chapter of my life would and should look like.
“It was at that time when he brought up MMA with some solid reasoning, including my physical attributes, athletic abilities, experience training at the highest level of college football and, perhaps most importantly, my natural disposition and work ethic.
“After spending years training together, lifting together, and battling alongside each other, some of my college teammates believed I could be successful in MMA and they brought it up with our friend Trey who then ran with the idea and put me in touch with some local fight promoters.
“In 2008, soon after winning the national championship with LSU, I received a call asking if I’d take a fight. At that time I was still training for football and had never had a single MMA training session, but it seemed like it would be fun so I agreed to give it a shot. In that fight I broke my hand and lost – not a successful fight by anyone’s standards. But, I had fun and thought that if things didn’t pan out with football I’d give it another chance down the road. About a year later I took my second fight and won; I then proceeded to also win my next seven amateur fights and three pro fights. I was hooked.”
His current MMA record stands at 15-4 and he’s a member of the Fighters Only Award winning Jackson-Winkeljohn gym in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A hotbed of fighting talent that needs little introduction.
Shawn says: “Getting the opportunity to train with coach Jackson and coach Winkeljohn opened the door to me finding my actual fight style. They are both great coaches and great men. They are so knowledgeable about the entire fight game but what was most special was that they took the time and interest to mold my fight style to my particular strengths and athletic abilities.
“I’m not a typical heavyweight fighter and instead of trying to make me fit into that typical mold they took what I do well and developed a stand-up style that suits me more naturally.”
Jordan’s former LSU teammates have been supporting him since he first got in the cage. A testimony to the humility and likability of the young Texan.
“My first few fights were like running out of the tunnel at Tiger Stadium, because I had about 30 teammates walking out next to me and cheering for me. Going out to one of my first fights my buddy and former teammate, Jacob O’Hair, was so pumped up that he grabbed me and head-butted me forgetting we didn’t have helmets on. He split open my forehead and I had to walk into the cage bleeding before the fight even started.
“A couple of other good buddies and former teammates of mine who are succeeding in the NFL right now have been very supportive. Before going to my first full-time camp at Jackson’s to prepare to fight Lavar Johnson I was making up excuses saying I had to stay home to work to pay bills. So, Matt Flynn and a few other friends (who weren’t teammates) supported me financially taking away my excuses.”
Despite Jordan’s stellar athletic pedigree he still feels there are chinks in the armor that need patching.
“To be honest, I think the biggest weakness in my game is experience,” he admits. “Although I’ve had a good number of fights they’ve been in a very compact time span. I’ve had 19 professional fights over the last four years but had my first real fight camp only 22 months ago. I am a relatively inexperienced professional fighter and I am still figuring out what kind of fighter I want to be when I ‘grow up.’
“I’m still learning to deal with certain aspects of fighting, especially the preparation involved. It’s strange to me that I still get a bit nervous before fights considering all my athletic experiences, but it’s different. The good part is that I’ve realized that getting nervous is part of it and the bigger the stage the more nerves there naturally are; but I have the same job to do and I’m getting better at doing it each time I step into the cage.”
Away from the cage, Shawn is an uncomplicated man who’s proud of his humble country roots in El Paso, where he learned to drive a car by first mastering a tractor.
“I am a simple country boy at heart. About three years ago I started working at Rummler-Rougon Farms in Point Coupe Parish in Louisiana, and my favorite thing to do with my free time is be at the farm. I help take care of the cattle, get to drive big trucks and tractors, and fix fences. But, in all reality they give me odd jobs to keep me busy so I don’t break stuff. The farm is on False River and I love riding jet skis on it or building a fire on the shore and hanging out with buddies.”
For the future, the LSU alumnus, who’s hoping to begin work on a master’s degree in business administration as soon as possible, has a simple plan.
“In 10 years I hope to be a couple of years into my big boy job where there is a bit more job security and consistent income so I am best able to support and provide for my wife and kids.”
As his skills are honed and his raw athleticism harnessed, this rising heavyweight could have his nest well feathered for a long time. The $50,000 bonus for ‘Knockout of the Night’ against Pat Barry could be the start of something seismic.
FRIENDLY FIRE
Shawn on TKO’ing friend Pat Barry in 59 seconds at UFC 161 in June:
“Fighting is our job. The outcome might be a bit bittersweet, because of our friendship, but we are both professional enough to know that it’s not personal, it’s our job. We both step into the cage with one purpose and no matter what happens during the fight it’s business and competition. We were friends before the fight and we’re still friends after.
“The best way I can explain it is like this: Pat and I work for the same company, we have the same job description, similar life experience and life goals. If people reading this think about someone who fits those same descriptions from their work, they are probably friends on the weekend, text each other, have inside jokes, and want the best for their coworker. But, if there was only one job opening next year, you’re going to make the best proposal why you deserve to keep the job, wouldn’t you? Same for us.”
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