Training boxer draws crowd
City’s Cody Crowley centre of attention at Lansdowne Place on Saturday
Cody Crowley is used to training in obscurity, thousands of miles from home, just another aspiring boxer in a Las Vegas gym full of unknown fighters hoping to one day be a champion.
It was a whole different experience to be the centre of attention Saturday afternoon training at centre court of Lansdowne Place mall with a throng of onlookers and well wishers.
Crowley is home and he’s preparing for his 12th professional boxing match but his first in his hometown May 13 at the Memorial Centre. He’s the headline attraction for Homecoming: The Return of Cody Crowley, the first pro boxing card in the city since former Canadian champion Nicky Furlano fought at the PMC on May 22, 1981.
“The buzz around town is really starting to pick up,” said Crowley, as he stretched in preparation for his workout. “Everyone is showing great support. We wouldn’t be able to do this show here without the support of everyone here in Peterborough.”
Crowley, an undefeated welterweight with an 11-0 record and six knockouts, is facing the stiffest test of his career. He’ll box Mexico’s Edgar Ortega (17-7-0, 11 knockouts) in the 10-round main event for the vacant Canadian Professional Boxing Council International Title.
“I’m expecting a rough and tough fight,” Crowley said. “He’s a hard hitting Mexican who will keep coming forward. I’m not going to take a step back. When you have two dogs going straight at each other it’s going to be an exciting fight.”
Crowley, 24, has the ability to move and box, but he’s adamant he wants to put on a show for the fans.
“I’m excited to really go in and bang out with this guy. People in Peterborough like to see hockey fights; people standing there and trading. I’m definitely going to be doing some of that. I’ll add a little finesse, too, and show off my boxing skills.”
Crowley is not only fighting, this is his first foray into promoting. His company Triple C Boxing is co-promoting the card with United Boxing Promotions, known for its regular events at Mississauga’s Hershey Centre. It’s meant a lot of work outside of training.
“I’m on the phone for a couple of hours as soon as I’m up in the morning. I tie on the running shoes and I’m out the door running. As soon as I get back I’m answering emails and then I’m in the gym training. I started my day (Friday) at 7 a.m. and finished at 11 p.m. It’s definitely very time consuming and stressful but come fight night as long as we have a successful show that’s all I care about,” he said.
His trainer Ibn Cason says he’s not worried about Crowley losing his focus on the real task at hand, the fight.
“His training is going great. We’re ready for the fight,” Cason said. “Promoting the fight is proving to be a little bit of a task, but at the same time, we stay focused on the main objective which is to keep Cody winning.”
Cason says they have a team in place to take care of as much of the logistics as possible to minimize Crowley’s distractions.
“The primary objective is the boxing. Everything else is secondary,” said Cason.
Ortega will come to fight, says Cason. He suffered a surprising knockout loss in his last fight in Mexico in February to an opponent fighting in just his second fight. It came after Ortega had knocked out a 14-0 Mexican prospect in December. Ortega has fought in Canada three previous times, twice in Montreal and once in Mississauga, going the distance in two losses to unbeaten prospects and suffering a technical-knockout loss to world ranked Canadian Samuel Vargas.
“This guy is very experienced. He has as many knockouts as Cody has fights,” Cason said. “He’s gone the distance with some top prospects and survived and given them some problems. With the amount of experience he has it’s always tough for an up and coming guy to go against a veteran like that. It’s going to be a nice test for Cody. He also has to fight in front of his hometown which is another test in itself. There are a lot of things that will be answered with this fight. I’m looking forward to it.”
Crowley is already surprised by the support he’s gotten since arriving home on Wednesday. He visited his old high school at St. Peter’s on Friday to speak to students. He hopes to also visit his old elementary school, St. Joseph’s, in Douro this week.
“I don’t really consider myself that successful of a person. I’m just working hard and trying to do my thing, but people are treating me like a real professional athlete. I feel like just an every day person,” he said. “We’re just staring my career. If we’ve got this type of response at the start of my career, it’s going to be something else when I get up there in the world rankings.”
Also training at Lansdowne Place were three other boxers set to fight on the six-bout card. Ennismore’s Jay Corcoran and Peterborough’s Andrew Slade will make their pro debuts to start the evening. Oshawa’s Jerome Gabriel was also on hand.
Tickets, ranging from $39.60 to $65.60 for regular bowl seats, are on sale at the PMC box office or at www.memorialcentre.ca. For ringside sponsor tables contact triplecboxing@outlook.com.