Shawn Estrada (born April 1, 1985) is an undefeated Mexican American professional boxer in the Super Middleweight division and was a U.S. Olympian at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Estrada ran for the city council in Commerce, California.[when?][2]
Raised in East Los Angeles, Estrada is the son of former 1968 Mexican Olympic team boxer Juan Estrada and the youngest of 16 siblings. He credits the sport of boxing as the force that kept him out of gangs growing up.[3]
His father had hoped to travel to the Beijing Olympics, but his failing health kept him home in Maywood. On August 17, 2008, his father died at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles.[4]
Estrada had an outstanding amateur record of 110-7. He won the 2000 Junior Olympic Championship at age 14 and the 2001 Pan-American Games Gold Medal, beating the top Cuban and Puerto Rican boxers in his weight class and age bracket. However, Estrada’s junior amateur career ended abruptly after his brother was killed in a gang-related shooting.[5]
In 2007, he lost to Shawn Porter but won the Olympic qualification beating highly touted Danny Jacobs twice.[6] He lost at the first American Olympic qualifier 3:13 to Carlos Góngora but won three bouts at the second qualifier.[7]
At the World Championships 2007 he defeated Israel's Artur Zlatopolski and then Japan's Ryota Murata, but was upset by Konstantin Buga of Germany 11-11.[8]
At the 2008 Olympics Estrada won against Argentina's Ezequiel Maderna[9] but lost to the eventual gold medalist England's James DeGale 5-11 in his second bout.[citation needed]
On November 29, 2008[10] Shawn made his Pro debut with a first round K.O. of veteran boxer Lawrence Jones.[11] He's had layoffs because of back injuries[12] and then had to undergo surgery for a ruptured tendon in his hand.[13] He is also a member of Team Fight to Walk, which supports America's first clinical stem cell trial, along with other notable fighters such as Boyd Melson, Demetrius Andrade, Steve Cunningham and Deandre Latimore.
