“The way it all went down, it was unreal.”
The boys from Genesis Boxing and Fitness returned from their second tournament of the year and their head coach Rick Rae is proud as punch.
Nine of Rae’s fighters answered the bell and made the trip to Victoria last Friday for a sanctioned amateur event on two days notice — four of them were unable to get bouts, but the experience was invaluable.
In the first fight, Ben Curet, 14, 105 pounds, battled hard and came up short on a split decision to an opponent from Nanaimo. It was only Ben’s fourth fight.
“Ben fought amazing,” said Rae. “The other coach came over to me later and said that’s the hardest anyone’s ever made his fighter work and ‘when’s the rematch?’”
In an all-Genesis’ matchup, 14-year-old, 100-pounders Noah Chupa and Joshua Jai squared off in a split decision — the fight was later announced as best bout of the night.
“Again, just a great, great effort by our guys,” said Rae.
In Genesis’ third bout, Matthew Sherlaw also fought an opponent from Nanaimo and was leading on the scorecards.
“He was whooping this kid hands down,” said Rick, explaining how the fight was stopped over a nose bleed (Matt’s) in the dying seconds of the second round.
“He was so far ahead on points it was crazy, but he lost the fight because the stoppage is a TKO. He was disappointed, but he shrugged it off.”
It was trial by fire for Brenden Le Brocq, 17, 150 pounds, who was full value in his first fight ever, a slugfest against an opponent with seven fights.
The first year Genesis’ boxer lost at the end of the second round “but only because he didn’t return a punch after eight punches — eight really light punches,” grumbled Rae, adding, “he definitely held his own.”
In the main event, Parksville’s Matthew Jai, 17, 135 pounds, dropped his opponent midway through the second round “with the biggest right hand I’ve ever seen in my life from a kid that age,” said Rae.
While the little club only posted one win down Island, the real shot in the arm, said Rae, “were all the split decisions against much more experienced boxers ... in my eyes it was a huge success. The unreal part for me is there was a smile on every face. They knew they were winning their fights, some hard luck, but the only thing on their mind after was ‘when do we fight next coach’.
“Everybody in that event came over to us and said these are the most accomplished young boxers with a year to two years’ experience they’ve ever seen,” he said, adding his boxers’ cardio was also commented on.
“Anybody can win and be a champion,” said Rae, “but can you lose and still have the heart of a champion, and that was what was so great for me, I mean those boys were so close it was sick.”
Mark Sat., July 28 on your calendar. That’s when Genesis hosts its first-ever sanctioned amateur boxing event in-house.
“We’re expecting about 15 bouts,” said Rae, “and it will be primarily Isalnd fighters because we’re really trying to pull our Island boxers together.”
The weigh-ins get underway at 4 p.m. and the bouts start at 7 p.m.