Jordan Panthen’s plan for success: less Instagram, more fighting

Thursday night at The Hangar in Costa Mesa, California, Jordan Panthen makes his third appearance of 2024 when he faces Victor Toney in a scheduled eight-rounder.

That shouldn’t raise any eyebrows. Fighters fight, right? Well, not exactly, and not in 2024. But the 27-year-old isn’t like the other prospects. 

“If I was fighting twice a year, I don’t know what I’d be doing,” Panthen said. “I’d just be in the gym training for nothing. That’s no fun. I remember after my pro debut, I didn’t fight until nine months later. I was in the gym all the time, and sometimes I was like, ‘What am I training for?’ So this is very important to me to stay busy. I want to keep winning, I want to keep showing my talent, I want to shove my name down people’s throats, and how I do that is by fighting and winning fights the old-school way, and that’s how I’m going to do it.”

If you’ve been paying attention to the rise of the junior middleweight up-and-comer, you’ll notice that he does a lot of things a fighter under the age of 30 doesn’t. He spars hard, spars as much as he can, and when he’s in the ring, it’s usually not a boxing match, but a fight. That’s garnered him plenty of positive notices from fans and pundits, and he’s doing it all without spending most of his day on social media.

“There’s certain things that I can’t do; I’m just not that person,” he said. “I’m not that guy who’s going to do BS videos on social media, do other things for clout or climb on someone’s back to climb up the ladder. I can’t fake it until I make it. I can’t do that. I don’t have that skill or that ability.”

He laughs.

“It’s so exhausting,” Panthen continues on the topic of social media. “And it irritates me. I use social media to post my fights, but I post when it’s necessary. I’m not posting every week or posting silly videos or trendy videos. I tried that once and it’s just too much energy and it literally makes me angry. So that’s not a good thing to have.”

Promoters and managers likely cringe at hearing that from a young, marketable boxer, but Panthen is sticking to his guns, knowing that while new forms of communication can aid in a fighter’s rise, you still have to fight, and no TikTok dances can help you there.

“It still can be done,” he said. “And I’m committed to do it that way because I just won’t do it the other way. So I’m either going to do it and make it this way or I’m going to fail.”

That all or nothing attitude is reflected in Panthen’s fighting style, which could be filmed in black and white for that old-school emphasis. But over the course of his 8-0 (7 knockouts) run, has he been tested yet?

“I think I’ve been tested,” he said. “I feel like my fourth fight (against Todd Manuel) was a big test. I was definitely nervous coming into it. I knew of him, he was coming to upset me, and I showed up and put out a good performance. I think my sixth fight (against Cameron Krael) was the big test, and it went the distance. I had two badly bruised hands in that fight, and every time I hit him was painful. So, that was the test, going all eight rounds.”

Panthen stopped the 44-fight vet Manuel in three rounds and nearly shut out Krael. On Thursday, another test is expected in the 8-2-1 Toney, whose only losses have been via decision to current WBC/WBO titleholder Sebastian Fundora and unbeaten Troy Isley. Add in a recent upset win over Jahyae Brown, and Toney is a live dog, to say the least.

“This fight, I got a guy who fights a little bit in a shoulder roll and does some things that I haven’t seen in a fight yet. I’ve seen it in the room and sparring, so it’s nothing I haven’t seen before, but not in a fight. So I think I’ll be tested in a different way and I’m looking forward to that, and I’m looking forward to just overcoming and putting on another dominant performance. That’s what I see. I see another dominant performance coming, no matter which way you look at it. If I’m tested early or whatnot, I see me overcoming and finding a way and showing more of my skills on June 20th.”

You get a distinct impression that Panthen likes the idea of being pushed to the limit, of fighting someone who doesn’t fall down when he hits them. That’s the fighter inside him. And that fighter isn’t allowing him to sit back and smell the roses anytime soon. There’s too much work to do.

“I’m just so focused on the mission at hand,” he said. “Even when I won my third fight, fourth fight, I guess I’m just hard on myself. I used to tell myself, I haven’t done shit yet, haven’t accomplished shit yet. I’ll feel good for a day or two, then I’ll be like, ‘You know what? I haven’t won a world title. I haven’t made a million dollars. I haven’t won multiple world titles. It’s not over yet.’ So I keep trying to remind myself that this is not a one-month mission, a one-fight mission, a one-year mission. This is a very long, ongoing mission. It’s a process, and I’ve got to stay committed.”

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