Some fighters toil away in obscurity their entire careers, never garnering much attention from fans, while others seem to just have “it”, whatever it is. Chicago super middleweight “Hollywood” Jimenez (7-0, 4 KOs) definitely falls in the latter category.
Although many of his fans don’t even know his first name (it’s Mike), whenever he fights, they come in droves to watch the heavy-handed slugger with the matinee idol face and outlandish haircut do his thing in the ring.
“I like to think it’s the way I fight,” explains Jimenez of his popularity. “I come out and try to put on a show for the fans. I do sell a lot of tickets. Maybe it’s because I come out dancing around the ring, jumping around. My haircut is always all jacked up. Normally people tend to look differently at that kind of carrying on, but I guess I connect with fans.”
25-year-old Jimenez will face tough Indianapolis veteran Mustafah Johnson in one of the featured bouts this Thursday, June 21, at Hitz Boxing’s second installment of “The Belvedere Bash” at The Belvedere Banquet in Elk Grove, Illinois.
“I don’t know anything about him,” Jimenez admits about Johnson. “I know he’s a very tough opponent, who doesn’t get stopped very often. He’s a guy who will give you some hard rounds, but hopefully I’ll come in with my A game an outwork him.”
Jimenez came relatively late to the sport of boxing, first entering a gym at age 19 after playing college football, but quickly realized his natural athletic ability gave him a leg up on other fighters. After just 35 amateur fights, he made the transition to professional boxing, more suited to his heavy-handed style, and has torn through his first seven opponents in impressive fashion.
“I’ve been blessed to work with Pete George, my trainer, from day one,” he explains. “And he has me work with lots of top guys like Donovan, his son, who is world-rated. Andy Lee I just finished working with. Eddie Chambers. Lots of great fighters who show me all kinds of new things.”
It was Donovan George who first gave Jimenez his nickname of Hollywood.
“When I was younger, my first year in the gym, I would come in the gym and I would have my phone, calling somebody or texting, and maybe stop to look in the mirror here and there and Donovan started calling me that. It seemed like out of nowhere it blew up overnight and so many people started calling me that. It’s gotten so now, a lot of people don’t even know my real name. They just call me Hollywood and that’s fine. I love the name.”
During the day, Jimenez, like many of his uncles, is an iron worker for Local 63 union iron workers and just finished his four-year apprenticeship. It’s those blue-collar roots that make him get along so well with his promoter, old-school fight guy, Bobby Hitz.
“Me and Bobby get along pretty well. He puts on fantastic shows and promotes them well. You hear about his shows on the radio, in the newspaper. He puts his flyers out everywhere. He does a great job for me and he’s my kind of guy.”
