Best in class again
Christian Zelenco wins second national boxing championship after changing divisions
Getting the bye basically meant missing out on a bout and missing out on an experience that’s going to make me better.”
Christian Zelenco
Christian Zelenco went undefeated at the Canadian Boxing Championships, though only inside the ring.
To her disappointment, the 16-year-old from Crystal Beach was the odd fighter out when the time came to set the matchups at the seven-day tournament last month in Quebec City.
There were only three fighters in the youth women’s 51-kg weight class, so there could only be one semifinal. Someone had to receive a bye into the final two days later.
The upside to the bye was that Zelenco, who trains out of Napper’s Boxing Club in Welland, would be assured of returning home with at least the silver medal. She also would be more rested stepping into the ring for the final.
She found no solace in any of that.
“My division doesn’t have a whole lot of girls in it, so I’m trying to get as much experience as I can,” the Ridgeway-Crystal Beach Secondary School student said. “Getting the bye basically meant missing out on a bout and missing out on an experience that’s going to make me better.”
Zelenco tried to scout the opponent she would fight in the final by videotaping the semifinal between Carrington Harbone from Manitoba and Emma Morrison Turley from British Columbia, but the finish produced had more misses than hits.
“I videotaped it on my phone, and I kind of tried to focus more on the videotaping that the actual fight,” she recalled with a laugh.
Zelenco was initially nervous watching the semifinal bout but began discovering flaws in the styles of both fighters as the three-rounder progressed.
Given his druthers, Zelenco’s head coach, Jeff Napper, would prefer that his fighters not watch their opponents. He said doing that runs the risk of overanalyzing.
“I didn’t really overanalyze that much at this tournament,” she said. “I had a strong game plan and I focused basically all of my energy on what I’m doing.
“It doesn’t matter what my opponent is doing.”
Zelenco and Napper worked together to “tweak the game plan” after it was determined that Carrington, an active counter-puncher, would be the southpaw’s opponent in the gold medal fight.
Carrington, an active counter puncher, advanced on the strength of a 2-1 decision over Turley.
“She was definitely a boxerpuncher,” Zelenco said. “That means she stays on the outside and waits for you to throw, but then she comes in and throws a lot.”
“She was difficult to fight, but Ray gave me a really solid game plan that ended up working very well.”
Said Napper, “I knew she had a tough fight on her hands. She had a good strategy.”
Zelenco, who won a Canadian women’s junior C 48-kg championships while fighting out of the St. Catharines Boxing Club, didn’t spend much time in the ring to take her second national title. The referee stopped the fight halfway into the three-minute opening round.
“During her fight against British Columbia I noticed she got very tired quickly, so there was a bit of a weakness in her conditioning,” Zelenco said.
Before leaving Quebec City with her gold medal, she fought a makeup bout.
“Basically, to make up for the fight I lost with the bye, and to get more experience.”
That second fight, a rematch of last year’s women’s junior C 48-kg final, was stopped by the referee into the second round with Zelenco getting the decision to improve her record to 9-1.
Napper praised Zelenco’s work ethic as second to none.
“She’s always in the gym, she always wants to work out,” he said. “Christian is very hungry to learn, and to get better.”
Opponents in Zelenco’s weight class are far and few between, but Napper was never worried that he would be taking an untested fighter to Quebec City for nationals.
“I wasn’t concerned,” the coach and one-time Canadian champion said. “She’s done a lot of sparring.”
Her favourite sparring partner at the boxing club is Sierra Picton, a 28-year-old from Welland who has 30 fights under her belt.
“Sierra is great for Christian,” Napper said.
“She holds Christian accountable.
“Christian can get a lot of looks with Sierra. It’s never an easy sparring session.”
Her next fight will be at the Commonwealth Boxing Championships taking place July 19-23 in Nassau, Bahamas.
Zelenco doesn’t expect to get in much sightseeing during the “relatively short tournament.”
“Maybe from the airport,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll try to get a window seat on the plane.”