Mandy’s final round
Mandy Bujold trains with her coach Stevie Bailey at TNT Boxing in Guelph, Wednesday. Bujold holds 10 consecutive national titles and hopes to win a record 11 this year.
KITCHENER — At a tournament a few years ago, Domenic Filane met a young boxer with a handful of national titles under her belt — and big plans to leave a special mark on her sport.
Filane, a two-time Olympian and 10-time Canadian champion as a light flyweight in the 1990s, is the gold standard for sustained dominance in amateur boxing.
“She knew who I was, because she said, ‘I’m going to be breaking your record.’ I just sort of smiled, like, ‘Yeah right, kid,’” said Filane, over the phone from the embroidery shop he owns in Schreiber, Ont.
That young boxer was Kitchener’s Mandy Bujold, a future Olympian and two-time Pan Am Games gold medallist. By the end of this month, her prediction to top Filane’s record has a good chance to come true.
Bujold, 29, is the odds-on favourite to win another gold at the Boxing Canada championships in Quebec City, which would give her a remarkable 11 straight Canadian titles in the women’s flyweight division.
Few would be more pleased to see her break Filane’s record than Filane himself.
“Now to actually see it coming to reality, I’ll be rooting for her,” he said. “It takes a lot of perseverance, hard work and dedication to keep pushing, and Mandy has that.”
A few months ago, it looked like Bujold might not challenge Filane’s record at all. After her disappointment at the Rio Olympics — where she was hospitalized with a stomach virus the night before her quarter-final bout — she took a long break from her sport. Then in November, she lost her coach, Adrian Teodorescu, to lymphoma.
After almost 14 years of pursuing her dreams in the ring, Bujold was worn out and ready to quit. “Two months ago, I was ready to quit boxing. I was telling people, ‘I’m done. I’m so done with boxing,’” she said. “I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere, I was frustrated with everything that was happening.”
With nationals looming, she slowly resumed training, and even had a few bouts, but admits she was missing that spark. That began to change about six weeks ago when Bujold started working with coach Stevie Bailey at Guelph’s TNT Boxing club.
The two clicked immediately, and the boxer began feeling reinvigorated. The Irish-born coach teaches the technical, European style that Bujold used under Teodorescu. Together, they’ve been polishing her timing and adding a few new combinations to be more menacing in the ring.
Despite her pedigree, the Olympian is an eager student, Bailey said.
“This could be difficult if you didn’t have an open-minded athlete. But Mandy is extremely open-minded and humble,” said Bailey, who’s coached six senior national champions since 2012.
“We’re not trying to change her, just make her better. She’s already been winning convincingly, but I want her to beat people so they don’t want to go back in the ring with her.”
With the nationals just a few weeks way, Bujold is back in fighting shape. She’s adjusted to female boxing’s new rules — fighting for three, three-minute rounds instead of four, two-minute rounds. Most importantly, she’s having fun again.
“It’s been a really smooth transition. Rather than starting all over, we’re working on small, technical things,” she said.
“I feel great. I feel like I’m in a good place. I’m motivated again and excited about training again.”
Last week, Bujold was sparring with Jade Ashmore, a rising star of British boxing, who came to Guelph to train with the Olympian. When they fought at the club on a recent Saturday night, more than 250 people were jammed inside the tight confines to see it.
Ashmore, who’s had 32 fights, says it was a good chance to measure herself against a veteran with more than 150 fights to her name.
“I get to see the level she works at, and see where I’m at compared to her,” Ashmore said. “She’s very fast, sharp, technical, has good footwork and she’s neat and tidy … she has very good timing as well.”
This week, Bujold will test herself against another visiting sparring partner, former American champion Alex Love. And she still has Sara Haghighat-Joo, the No. 2-ranked fighter in Canada at her weight, as a regular sparring partner at TNT.
But Bujold says for the first time in her career she’s not worrying about long-term goals. She’s focused only on the Canadian championships and will worry about what comes next after that.
“Only time can tell. After nationals, I’ll come back and re-evaluate,” she said.
“I’m actually enjoying focusing on the short term. For so long in my career I’ve been focusing on the next four years ahead.”
The boxer isn’t ruling out another run at the Olympics, but says if that happens, it would only be after a long break and as part of a comeback attempt closer to the Games.
Bujold is thinking a lot about life after boxing, too. She’s getting married in August, wants to have a family, and is interested in new challenges, including possibly getting into municipal politics some day.
“I’m at the point in my career where if something comes up, a really good job opportunity, I don’t have to feel like I’m stuck and can’t explore it. I’m totally open to it,” she said.
“But it’s not like I’m approaching the end of my career because I’m not motivated anymore. I still love this sport as much as I did from Day One.”