Boss Boxing may have only won two of the eight fights it was entered in at Airdrie’s inaugural Boss Brawl, but that didn’t matter to its owner and coach, as about 400 people packed the Town and Country Centre, March 12, for 19 bouts of amateur boxing.
“It completely exceeded my expectations,” said Rhys Eckardt, owner and coach of Boss Boxing.
“I was confident it would be somewhat of a success, but people kept coming in – even close to the end of the night, people were still buying tickets. I loved it. The fact that it was better than expected tells me it was from good support in Airdrie.”
Boss’ Brad Lescard won a third-round stoppage fight over Robin Johnson of Calgary Southpaw.
“I landed a left uppercut combination that scored smack dab in the centre of his face and he got the standing eight count right then,” Lescard said of his win. “I knew immediately it wasn’t going the distance. The first round was a bit of a feeler to see what style he had. I took a couple shots I shouldn’t have in the second round and the third round was mine.”
Airdrie’s Jesse Foster also won his fight, in a unanimous decision over Matt Ash of Fort McMurray’s Sweet Science boxing club.
“I had a game plan going and pulled it off I guess,” Foster said. “I worked the jab and tried to figure out what he was doing. I tried to pace myself in the first round and then I saw a couple openings and went body-head and ended up scoring points. I was ecstatic and couldn’t believe it. It made all the hard work pay off. I’d do it again.”
“I though he was awesome,” Eckardt said of Foster. “He was playing it safe, but at the end of the day he came out with the victory.”
Dallas Davies, Angelo Addante, Jacob Hart, Adam Stackard, Jon Lagreca and Taylor Piquette, all of Boss Boxing, dropped their bouts.
“I was OK with that, because most of our losses were so close,” Eckardt said. “Our guys trained for three rounds, but they gassed in the second round. Jesse and Brad, the two who are always in here, always sparring – they’re the ones that won, so that’s hopefully going to set a new standard here.”
Lagreca and Stackard’s fights were both close decisions, and although they didn’t earn wins, Eckardt praised their performances.
“(Stackard) was winning at points, but took a shot to the ear in the third round, so his head was ringing and he couldn’t come out of it,” Eckardt said. “(The Lagreca one) I didn’t get at all. I thought we had won unanimously, so I was surprised to see that we lost.”
Win or lose, the boss was thrilled with the crowd and said that plans are already in place for a follow-up event, possibly in October.
“I want to re-match every single one of those losses,” Eckardt said. “We’ll over train for that one.”
“I was surprised how many people came out, but it was good to see that many people support the amateur fighters,” Lescard said. “The crowd was pretty loud. It was a good time.”
