Jamel Herring (21-2) became a world champion last May when he defeated Masayuki Ito by unanimous decision to capture the WBO super featherweight title in Kissimmee, Florida.

He followed that victory up with another win via unanimous decision, over mandatory challenger Lamont Roach, in November and planned on facing former two-division champion Carl Frampton in his backyard in Belfast this spring or summer.  Those plans have been put on hold with the current covid-19 pandemic shutting down the sports world.

The 34-year-old 2012 U.S. Olympian recently went live on his social media accounts to interact with his fans.  One of the questions asked was who has given him the toughest fight over his 23 fight professional career.

While one might think that he would mention his most accomplished opponent, Ito, Herring said that the toughest opponent that he has faced by far is the only man to have stopped him.

"The Denis Shafikov fight. That fight was hell. For one, I undertrained for the fight. I only had like a three and a half week training camp. I was undefeated at the time so of course you go into the fight thinking you can just do anything but Dennis Shafikov was a fighter that taught me basically that there is levels to this boxing thing so Dennis Shafikov is always going to be one of my toughest fights on my resume to be honest with y'all. The Ito fight, no disrespect to Ito but the Ito fight wasn't as tough as the Dennis Shafikov fight," Herring stated.

Herring was stopped in the 10th round of their July, 2016 bout.  His only other career loss occurred a year later when he lost a unanimous decision to Ladarius "Memphis" Miller.

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