Shuffield Earns Victory
Codie Shuffield (left) is declared the winner in the MID-SOUTH MMA Championships during an April 16 fight. Shuffield defeated Bobby Logue. – Photo Provided
By David Howell
Editor
SOUTHAVEN – After suffering multiple back-to-back punches in the first seconds in the opening round, Codie Shuffield battled back to win his first professional fight in the MID-SOUTH MMA Championships at the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven on April 16.
The blows came from 25 year-old Bobby Logue of Memphis, who was also competing in his first professional MMA fight.
“It looked bad at first,” Shuffield said as the blows knocked him to the ground. “Another one could have ended the fight.”
Shuffield was able to pop back up and hold Logue, kneeing him while he regained his composure and kept Logue from getting any more licks in.
“My game plan was to kick him more than anything,” Shuffield said, explaining that Logue, at 6’6” had superior reach. They were competing in the middle weight division – 185 to 205 pounds.
The kicking gameplan was quickly dropped as Shuffield turned to every miniscule of training and technique he had ever been taught.
“Like Mike Tyson said, everybody has a game plan until they get hit,” Shuffield explains.
Shuffield came back with a fury and the fight was called just a minute and half in the first of three five minute rounds.
“Everything I have ever learned, I used in that minute and a half,” Shuffield told the Herald.
The parting shots came as Shuffield was able to launch two sequences of a right punch and left hook, followed by a body shot.
“The referee bent down to check on him and blood splattered on him from my last punch,” Shuffield said.
“The doctor checked on him and Logue told him he was through,” Shuffield added.
Shuffield said he also had an x-ray following the fight after the nasty head shots he took early in the fight.
“My jaw was swollen, but everything checked out fine,” he told the Herald.
He credited the large crowd, almost 500 attended from Water Valley, Batesville and Oxford, for their support.
“I felt like the whole crowd was there for me,” Shuffield said. He also thanked his local sponsors for their support.
Shuffield intends to continue his education at Northwest Community College, and resume work at his part-time job at Spencer Lee’s Transmission Shop in Oxford.
He also intends to return to the ring in June for his second professional fight. Prize Fight Promotions is tentatively working to schedule this fight either in Batesville or Oxford.
