THUNDER ON THE PRAIRIES
Smith prepares for debut in front of home crowd
As Wayne Smith prepares for the biggest fight of his life, he does so in the smallest of spaces.
One of the first things you notice about Saskatoon’s Top Dog Boxing Club gym is that it has no boxing ring.
Instead, boxers spar inside a square, approximately four feet by four feet, taped onto the floor.
When Smith steps into the ring today to battle Mexico’s Jorge Castro in the Thunder on the Prairies eight-bout boxing card at SaskTel Centre, it’ll feel like he’s throwing jabs and hooks on canvas the size of a football field.
“When you’re in the ring, it’s like you’re in the ocean,” muses boxing trainer and Thunder on the Prairies promoter Dennis Page, who uses the same methods the late Leroy Edmerson once used on both him and his brother, Greg Page, a former WBC world heavyweight champion.
“We call the ring the ocean because our ring is so small.”
Indeed, it’s a mere paddling pool compared to what Smith and his mates will experience inside SaskTel Centre. That tiny square is akin to fighting inside a shower stall.
“We do everything in that square that we do in the ring,” Page explained with a sly smile. “We slip. We block. We throw punches. The difference is it causes you to react quickly. It causes you to get used to combat.
“It teaches you how to navigate. It teaches you contact. It teaches you how to pivot. It teaches you control.”
The Top Dog Boxing Club, as cozy and non-pretentious as it is, isn’t what you might expect. It’s tucked away in the middle of a residential area in Westmount on the west side of Saskatoon, located in the cramped confines of a basement inside a small bungalow.
There’s a low ceiling. No boxing ring. Just that square. There are dumbbell weights, an elliptical machine on the side, jumping ropes, a couple of punching bags and a clock to mimic the time of each round.
On the walls are lists of exercises written in felt pen on sheets of paper. There’s also a poster from the WBA fight between Greg Page and Tim Wotherspoon.
Nothing sophisticated. Nothing high-tech for this, the sweet science of boxing.
It’s old school, but so is boxing. “You don’t need a big gym to train,” said Page. “(Edmerson) trained me and Greg in his attic. We worked out in his attic in Louisville, Kentucky, during the hot months of June and July. It was an interesting thing.”
Smith doesn’t seem to mind. At age 28, he’s currently ranked No. 12 by the Canadian Professional Boxing Council in the super feather (59-kilogram) weight class. He’s not lacking confidence going into Saturday’s tilt.
“I am confident because I’ve been training for two years,” Smith said through his thick Newfoundland accent.
“Every fight is a new fight, but I’ve been training to win. I know nothing about (Castro). It doesn’t really matter about my opponent because if I worry about my opponent, I’m not worrying about what I do.”
Smith was born and raised in Newfoundland and Labrador. He didn’t pick up boxing until the age of 22 — “that’s late in the game,” Page admitted, “as a lot of time, people start when they’re 12 to 15 and then they start going through the ranks.”
Smith took up a friend’s offer to join a boxing club that had just opened up in their hometown of Placentia Bay. Smith had played baseball and street hockey as a youngster.
“He thought I’d be good at it because I was athletic,” recalled Smith. “I joined up and stayed with it.”
A high school graduate who, in his own words, was “a good boy,” he later trained in North Dakota for his pro debut. Needing to return to Canada, Smith had his Newfoundland and Labrador boxing coach hook him up with a new gym. He’s been training in Saskatoon for the last few years.
“For me, starting at 22, I never had any boxing fights so it didn’t put much damage on me or my body,” Smith said. “I’m fresh.”
Fresh, and still relatively inexperienced, Smith is 1-5-2 as a pro.
“The ones that I lost, I never had any boxing technique.” he said. “I was just going out there, fighting against good opponents and I was pretty much going into it to lose. The last couple of years, I’ve been gaining a lot of technique and strategy and I’m expecting my fight to be a good show.”
Smith, who is studying mental health and wellness at SIIT (Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies), finished his first semester Thursday. He will start his practicum on Monday. He said boxing is an outlet.
“It gives me purpose. It makes the mind strong. You can keep in shape. It’s a competitive sport. It’s a good stress relief.”
While Smith said boxing can be a brutal sport, he offers no apologies. To each their own.
“It is a rough sport to get in — if you like playing paddy-cakes or something,” quipped Smith. “But for somebody with a hard head and a lot of will, it’s a perfect sport for them.”
Smith hopes to be successful in his SaskTel Centre debut in front of a home crowd.
Leaving his padding-pool behind, he is ready to dive headfirst into the ocean. He has no worries of drowning.
“I know how to swim.”