It was a long and exhausting haul of a road trip, but one member of Airdrie’s Trinity Boxing Academy returned from the Manitoba Golden Gloves tournament - held last weekend in Winnipeg - a champion.
“He walked in there and beat a guy with nine fights,” said Kelly Brown, owner and head coach at Trinity, of his new golden pupil, Alex Zimich.
Zimich, 15-years-old, claimed the gym’s first official amateur gold fighting in the Junior-70kg division at the two-day tournament. Brown said the win helped soften the frustrations felt by the club’s other competitors, who also made the trip from Airdrie to the Manitoba Golden Gloves tournament.
A veteran Trinity member, Chris Anderson, was unable to be matched up for his ninth amateur fight; an unfortunate occurrence that Brown said is just a reality of competing in the sport at the amateur level.
“Nine times out of 10, we’ll have a fight already lined up, but sometimes, guys have to pull out for personal reasons or whatever,” said Brown.
According to Brown, fighters from different gyms are matched up by weight class and experience level, and making bouts on short notice after a cancellation is not always possible.
The other Trinity fighter who competed at the tournament, Brandon Misquita, cut his teeth in a hard fought battle at the 75-kg class, but ultimately lost his first amateur bout via decision, Brown said.
“It was tough, but it’s time to go back to square one and review the video of the fight and see what went wrong,” Brown said.
Brown, 36, added that Trinity would be looking to invite all the clubs who competed in the Manitoba tournament (some from as far as the U.S.) to a fight card Trinity is looking to host in the coming months at the Town and Country Centre in Airdrie.
The tournament experience gained by the team will help all of the students who currently train at Trinity, Brown said; and getting to visit several Manitoba gyms, including his older brother Kent’s Winnipeg Elite club, taught the team plenty of new tricks. He also said he’s proud of the three young men who represented his club - as the nerves involved in competing can be intense.
“My first fight was in 1985,” Brown said.
“I was 11-years-old, fighting in Fargo, North Dakota. It was nerve wracking… but if you’re not nervous, then I would suspect something is wrong in that person’s head.”
Brown went on to compete in nearly 100 amateur bouts, and he hopes to continue building up his novice-boxing program at Trinity, helping craft more confident young men like Zimich.
“I’m really trying to pump up the beginner’s class and get the kids in young,” Brown said.
“Teaching the science, not the violence.”
