Shemuel Pagan looks to make impact inside and outside the ring
“He can fight on the inside, he can fight on the outside, and he has fast hands…I think he can win a world title…and I think it will be his character that will propel him there.”
When that praise is heaped on a fighter by the one and only Teddy Atlas, it should sound the alarm for boxing fans to take notice.
The man Atlas is praising and who fight fans should be aware of is Brooklyn, New York’s Shemuel Pagan, who makes his professional debut August 21 in Newark, New Jersey as part of the Tomasz Adamek-Michael Grant undercard.
On Tuesday at the Mendez Gym on the corner of 5th Ave. and W. 28th St. in Manhattan, Pagan and his team held a press conference to formally announce that the twenty-two year old will forego his amateur status and turn pro in less than two weeks.
Coming to boxing later than most professional fighters, Pagan picked up the sweet science at age thirteen. Trained by his father, who was a former kickboxing and karate champion in his own right, “Shem” quickly became a rising star in the New York City amateur boxing scene.
From 2006 to 2010, Pagan rattled off five straight New York Golden Gloves Championships. In doing so, he joined arguably the greatest amateur fighter of all-time, Mark Breland, as the only other fighter who has won five New York Golden Gloves Championship necklaces.
Atlas put it best when he bluntly stated, “You don’t win five Golden Gloves if you don’t know how to fight.”
But digging deeper into what we can expect from “Shem” stylistically — other than the fact that he knows how to fight — the Puerto-Rican American insists he doesn’t fit one mold.
“I have a lot of versatility,” said Pagan. “I can bring it to a fighter, I can stay in the pocket and slip. I have a style similar to Roberto Duran mixed with a little bit of Sugar Ray Leonard with my speed and my slickness. I can be an aggressor or I can be a boxer because I know how to move.”
In order to continue the success enjoyed as an amateur — compiling a record of 85 wins and 19 losses — Pagan will certainly need to look a little like Duran and a little like Leonard. But as Atlas suggested, it might be Pagan’s character — along with his superior talents — that ultimately propels him to a earning a world title.
Midway through Pagan’s speech at Tuesday’s press conference, he mentioned the financial stress that being an amateur boxer causes. Having spent the last eight-plus years fighting for no financial reward, Pagan will finally earn a payday for his efforts.
“Everybody knows this is my first professional fight and I’m finally going to make some money,” Pagan said with a huge smile. “I’m making $1,000 and what I am doing is donating it to the Teddy Atlas Foundation [Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation].”
Pagan went on to explain, “The reason why I am donating it is because I follow the Old Testament — I’m a religious person. When God blesses you with anything, he commands that you give the first fruits to him. So when you give to the poor and needy, you are giving to God…I want to help God’s people.”
Pagan, who subscribes to the Jewish faith, has that in common with fellow Brooklyn boxers, Zab Judah, Dmitriy Salita, and Yuri Foreman.
While he shares a common faith and profession with the fighters above, he joins a long list of prizefighters who hail from New York City’s most populous borough and will now be tasked with living up to what people expect from “Brooklyn fighters.”
“When you’re from Brooklyn you’re supposed to be this big, tough, bad guy,” Pagan explained. “But that’s not the image I want to portray. I’m not big at all. I’m one hundred and thirty-something pounds. I’m not a bad guy, I’m just tough.”
When talking to Pagan, however, it is clear that he saves his toughness for inside of the ring. Through his actions outside of the ring, the always smiling Pagan is striving to make a positive and long-lasting impact in the lives of people in need.
In addition to pledging his entire first purse as a professional prizefighter to the Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation, Pagan has also volunteered to donate his time teaching kids at Atlas’s gyms.
“When you care about others more than yourself, you’re stronger in whatever you do,” said Atlas.
If what Atlas said is true, it might be difficult to find another boxer as strong as Pagan.
The alarm has been sounded. Take notice of Shemuel Pagan, not just for his achievements inside the ring, but outside as well.