Put ‘em up
Westville boxers hope to make ring debuts on amateur card in Truro
The Westville Boxing Club opened its doors less than a year ago.
On Saturday, the club will send one (perhaps even two) boxers over to the Legends Gaming Centre at the Truro Power Centre to fight on an amateur card.
When Aaron Kinch started the club, officially opening on July 4 of last year, looking for a way to keep young people motivated to stay active, he didn’t think that he and assistant coach Curtis Frost would have any of their pupils ring-ready so soon.
“Nope. Not a chance,” Kinch laughed on Wednesday, “but they’ve trained hard, they work out at the Pictou County Wellness Centre and they do their own routines at home.”
“They” are Evan Montgomery of Westville, who will fight in a 54-kilogram match, while Kinch is also trying to get an opponent for Westville’s Kaleb Gordon, who would fight in a 45 kg bout.
“They’re really gung-ho to fight, they really want to get in the ring and see what it’s all about.”
He said Gordon is a good student, a quick learner who picked up on the nuances of boxing since joining the club last September.
“He’s shy, quiet — until it’s go time.”
Montgomery, Kinch added, “has a good chin, a good punch and a ton of heart.”
The 15-year-old Montgomery sounds like he’s ready to go. “I’m pretty confident. I feel like I can hit hard,” he said, adding that he feels good that the coaches at the Westville Boxing Club are confident enough to put him in the ring.
Kaleb Gordon, meanwhile is 12 and also will fight his first match — if not this coming weekend, then soon. As part of fight preparation, the coaches have instructed him not to worry about what might be going on outside the ropes. “They told me not to focus on people outside the ring, and just the person that I’m fighting.”
Kinch said this week that he’s got a feeling of “nervous anticipation” to see how his boxers will perform when the opening bell rings, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“I was always nervous before any of my competitions,” said Kinch, who fought as both an amateur and pro and was a Canada Games silver medallist back in the mid-1990s.
“Nerves will help you if you let them,” Kinch said, explaining that a few butterflies can help a fighter to stay sharp, focused, and on-the-move.
“I know they can get in there and do it, we are excited and really looking forward to Saturday night.”