Bujold battles her way past the unknown
Pan Am titleholder impresses during a bruising debut in Rio
Yodgoroy Mirzaeva, a boxer from Uzbekistan, walked quickly past a handful of reporters after her first-round bout with Canada’s Mandy Bujold. Her head was in her hands and she wept loudly.
It’s the other side of Olympic glory: the athlete who trains for years, travels a great distance and then is finished after one appearance, in this case four two-minute rounds.
How unusual was Mirzaeva’s journey to Brazil? Her opponent had never seen her fight.
“There were two opponents for the whole tournament that I know nothing about and she was one of them,” Bujold said after a unanimous decision in her favour at the Riocentro arena. “We couldn’t find video. We couldn’t find anything. So, it was really a matter of going out there and trying to adapt to what she was going to do.”
Bujold, 29, from Kitchener, Ont., who was passed over by Boxing Canada for a London 2012 wildcard spot in favour of Mary Spencer, said the challenge of fighting an unknown has its advantages: You just fight your fight and play to your own strengths. But there are also the unknowns: “Is she aggressive? Is she left-handed. Is she right-handed?” Bujold said. “I knew nothing.”
It didn’t seem to hurt her in the ring. Bujold controlled the fight from the outset, landing a left hook on her opponent’s chin in the first round and then popping her on the side of the head with the same hand in the second, knocking her down. She didn’t take much punishment herself, other than a blow under her right eye from her opponent’s head, which had Bujold holding a metal tool to her face to reduce the swelling as she talked to the press.
Other than the incidental headbutt, Bujold’s biggest challenge was nerves, performing in the Olympics for the first time in a career that includes two Pan Am Games titles, including last year in Toronto.
“I think the entire first fight is a bit nerve-racking until you get that decision, because it’s in the judges’ hands at that point and you never know,” she said. “Once the decision is announced, it’s like, ‘OK, now I can move on and really start focusing on the medal rounds.’”
And it should get easier from here.
“It’s kind of stress off my shoulders now that I’ve got out there,” she said. “The first fight is always the worst. Now that I’ve got my groove, I think it’s going to go better and better as the tournament goes on.”
Easier and yet harder. Bujold’s quarter-final bout comes next Tuesday against China’s Ren Cancan, who was the flyweight silver medallist at London 2012.
“I’ve seen her at many tournaments, but we’ve never actually fought,” Bujold said.
At least there will be plenty of film available.