Brother act hopes to be hard to beat
Three St. Catharines Boxing Club fighters representing Ontario at national championships
To say the family of Patrick and Monica Ryan of St. Catharines has a fighting chance to win a medal at the Canadian boxing championships next week in British Columbia would be an understatement.
Twenty-year-old Stephen Ryan and younger brothers Gerry, 18, and Matthew, 15, all punched their tickets to nationals with top-three finishes at the Ontario championships held in Niagara Falls.
Stephen settled for the silver medal in a close decision to Spencer Wilcox of Hamilton after convincing wins in his first fights at provincials.
Stephen doesn’t expect to have any trouble rebounding from the disappointing loss to Wilcox as he heads to the Canadian championships for the fourth time in his career.
“I definitely feel confident. I feel favoured to win, honestly,” he said. “Frankly, everyone thought I had won it, but it was a close fight, and they gave it to the other guy.
“The other guy (Wilcox) is
really good, credit to him.”
This will be Gerry’s fifth trip to the Canadian championships. At the Ontario championships, he won a bronze but qualified to go to nationals as one of two representatives from the province after the gold medallist was unable to compete in British Columbia. The Grade 12B student at Laura Secord Secondary School in St. Catharines doesn’t feel like he’s entering nationals through the back door.
“I feel pretty good about going because the fight at provincials I thought I won it,” he said. “It was a split decision, and they gave it to the other guy.
“I feel like I deserve to go.” A silver medallist at nationals in 2018, Stephen conceded straddling the line between wanting to win a Canadian championship — and wanting to win one so badly can be difficult.
“There are a whole lot of mixed emotions, but at the end of the end it is just another fight.”
He scouts upcoming opponents at weigh-ins but doesn’t go out of his way to search online for videos of their previous fights.
“I just like to be surprised when I go in the ring,” Stephen added with a chuckle.
John Robertson, who coaches all three brothers at St. Catharines Boxing Club and will be accompanying them to Langford, B.C., a Vancouver suburb, for the April 23-27 competition, doesn’t want his fighters becoming fixated on how their opponents fared in the ring in the past.
“You could look at it, and they’re not the same. You could make a plan, and it goes out the window,” Robertson said. “Sometimes, if you watch a guy fight another guy, that’s him fighting someone else, not necessarily your guy.”
The veteran coach is speaking from experience when he says fight plans can’t be etched in stone. “You may see a fighter do something a couple of times in the past, it never turns out the way you thought it was going to,” he said with a laugh.
Matthew took a unanimous three-round decision for the gold medal at the Ontario championships. After four years training out of the club, sometimes sparring with his brother Stephen, the Grade 10 student at Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School in St. Catharines has become used to being flexible when it comes to a fight plan.
“At provincials, I fought a taller kid, so I had to move a lot,” he said. “It depends on the opponent. I just have to use my advantage.”
Matthew, who is going to nationals for the first time, considers his speed a strength, but he can come in close and brawl if he needs to.