Members of Inner City Boxing PG who will be in Chilliwack this weekend are, from left, coach Kenny Lally, Canaan Woodrow, Audrey Edmunds, Melissa O’Flynn, Koehen McLeod, Adam Young and coach Jag Seehra.
For one long year, Koehen McLeod has been working toward his shot at redemption. He’ll get it this weekend at the B.C. Bronze Gloves in Chilliwack.
At last year’s tournament, also in Chilliwack, McLeod had his first fight as a member of Inner City Boxing PG. He lost. He hasn’t stepped into the ring for real since then, because Inner City coaches Jag Seehra and Kenny Lally decided they wanted to take his raw potential and see what they could do with it.
So, for the past 12 months, McLeod has been training. He’s been working on his overall fitness, hitting the heavy bags, and sparring inside and outside of the club. He’s been honing his technique and his footwork, and now he’s ready to show his progress.
“I’m coming back way stronger,” said the 16-year-old McLeod. “I didn’t like how my last fight ended, and I just really want to show my skills.”
The Bronze Gloves are for boxers with zero to four bouts of experience.
Fights start on Friday and go through Sunday at the Landing Sport Centre. McLeod is one of eight entrants in the 54- to 57-kilogram junior C division. To achieve his goal of becoming a B.C. Bronze Gloves champion, he’ll have to win three fights in three days.
“This kid is so ready now,” Seehra said. “He has done everything we’ve asked him to do and I feel very excited about watching him this weekend.”
Seehra is fully aware of the commitment McLeod has shown in sticking with his training program since last fall, and applauds him for it.
“That’s when you know that the person has something more in them,” Seehra said. “It takes a person with an immense amount of determination to do what he has done. He has shown the will, and he’s putting the skill into play as well.”
Inner City fighters Adam Young and Canaan Woodrow will also be competing in the B.C. Bronze Gloves. Young, 14, is in the 57- to 60kg junior B division and the 17-year-old Woodrow is in the 55- to 60kg youth category.
Young will also be looking to avenge a loss at last year’s tournament. That setback came in the first and only fight of his career so far, and, like McLeod, he’s been working and waiting for this next opportunity.
“I just want to prove myself,” he said. “It was hard losing my first fight so I took the whole year off, have been training hard, and now I’m going to show it.”
Young has two other boxers in his division and Seehra is proud of him for putting himself in position to take another crack at a Bronze Gloves title.
“After a loss, or after something that doesn’t go your way, what are you going to do – are you just going to let that happen, or are you going to get better, and that’s exactly what these kids (McLeod and Young) have done,” Seehra said. “They’re not even the same kids that we took to Chilliwack last year so I’m really looking forward to seeing both of them shine.”
Woodrow, meanwhile, is in a group with four other boxers. His first bout at the Bronze Gloves will be the first of his career. Even though he’s been part of the Inner City fight team for a relatively short time, he has impressed Seehra and Lally with his determination and progress. And Woodrow himself is ready for action, especially after participating in some high-level sparring sessions last month in Edmonton.
“I was really nervous in Edmonton – I was a bit scared to be honest – but going into this, I’m pretty excited,” he said. “I’m quite confident in my abilities, and I’m confident I’m going to come out with a gold.”
Chilliwack is also hosting the B.C. Silver Gloves and the Elite Provincial Championships this weekend, and Inner City will have fighters in both those tournaments as well. Thunder Innis will be competing in the Silver Gloves and Melissa O’Flynn will be throwing punches in the Elite championships.
To be eligible for the Silver Gloves tournament, boxers must have five to nine bouts on their resumés.
The 16-year-old Innis enters the Silver Gloves having already won B.C. Bronze Gloves, Alberta Silver Gloves and Alberta Golden Gloves championships last season. In Chilliwack, he’ll throw leather in the 80- to 85kg youth division. There’s just one other boxer in the category, Ranveer Singh Dhaliwal of Bisla Martial Arts in Surrey.
Innis is intent on beating Dhaliwal and adding another title to his growing list of accomplishments.
“My approach is just doing what I do,” Innis said. “I go in there, and every time I go in, I prove myself as being the best at what I do.
“It’s my first fight of the season and, after this, I’m going to be a two-time Silver Gloves champion.”
As for O’Flynn, she’s a 30-year-old from Quesnel’s 2 Rivers Boxing Club. In Quesnel, she has worked extensively with Wally Doern of 2 Rivers. But, with that club facing some uncertainty at the present time, she’s now part of Inner City as well.
At the Elite championships, O’Flynn will be competing at 57kg in a group of four. That means she’ll have to win two fights to claim the provincial title. Her first fight in Chilliwack will be the 22nd of her career, and she plans to use every ounce of her ring savvy to start with a victory.
“My main objective right now is to win that first round,” she said. “(I’ll have to) keep active, throw lots of punches, move around, read and learn (my opponent). And then once I learn, the next rounds can come after that.”
Seehra is looking forward to seeing what kind of damage O’Flynn can do as she sets her sights on the provincial title – especially with the experience she has gained in the past number of months with clashes against some national-calibre boxers.
“Last boxing season, she fought the best in the country twice (Scarlett Delgado), and she went to Alberta and fought a girl with a ton of fights (Amber Wall), so she’s been with some high-level athletes and I think it’s her time now,” Seehra said. “She’s put the work in, she’s put the time in, she’s sacrificed so much, and her true self is going to come out.”
Audrey Edmunds, a 13-year-old member of the Inner City fight team, will also be in Chilliwack this weekend. She doesn’t have an opponent, but Seehra and Lally are trying to find her an exhibition match.