Boxing club hosting provincial championship in Swift Current
Boxers from across Saskatchewan will be competing to become the provincial titleholder in their weight class during the upcoming championship event in Swift Current.
The Counterpunch Boxing Academy is hosting the Saskatchewan provincial boxing championship at the Lt. Colonel Clifton Centre, Dec. 8.
Nick Habscheid, the head coach at Counterpunch Boxing Academy, said the club has been working hard to host a memorable evening of quality boxing.
“We've really tried to plan this event,” he told the Prairie Post. “We've been working as a group, about 10 of us, planning for four months and we have tons of sponsorships and belts. We have title belts for the winners, and we're going to get fighters from all over the province – Regina, Saskatoon, Lloydminster, Weyburn and other places. It's going to be a really great event and night.”
Swift Current previously hosted the provincial boxing championship in 2009, when Habscheid was a volunteer selling bottled water at the concession.
Last fall the club, formerly known as the Vic-Tory Boxing Club, hosted an outdoor boxing event at Mitchell Field in partnership with the Swift Current 57's baseball club.
Since then, the boxing club changed its name and moved to a new downtown location.
Counterpunch Boxing Academy decided to submit a bid to the provincial boxing association to host this year's championship and it was successful.
“We wanted to host another event after the Fall Brawl, which was really good,” he said. “I'm trying to figure out how to top each event we do and the Fall Brawl was really hard to top, and I really wanted a lot of fights on whatever our next event would be and having something like the provincial championships to fight for I thought would be a good thing to put our name in for the bid.”
He is expecting fierce competition during the fights at the championship, because there is not only the honour of being a provincial titleholder but also the opportunity to win a custom made title belt.
“I've always noticed that when you go to a fight card with belts, everyone fights that much harder because you want to have that strap on you at the end of the night,” he said. “So I'm expecting people fighting really hard and leaving it all on the ring.”
There will be up to 12 fights at the championship and a number of boxers from southwest Saskatchewan will be hoping to compete at the event. Counterpunch Boxing Academy will submit five names in different weight classes.
Four of them had an opportunity to prepare for provincials during fights at the Top Dog Golden Gloves tournament in Saskatoon, Nov. 17. Dashanda Fehr-Spence, Hunter Theise and Jaden Toye won their bouts while super heavyweight fighter Dakota Mcfadyen lost a close split decision. These four and Jesse Kitchen will be looking for bouts at the provincial championship.
The best seats for viewing the action at the provincial championship will be the ringside tables. The price for a 10-seat table is $500, which includes a meal. Individual tickets sell for $15 per person. Tickets are available at Pharmasave, at the Counterpunch Boxing Academy (140B Central Avenue North) on week nights from 7-9 p.m. and at the door on Dec. 8. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and fights start 7 p.m.
For more information, call Habscheid at 306-7743036.