BC Boxing stood strong at the Haringey Box Cup in London, winning best team at the competition over entire countries who sent athletes to compete.
Haringey is one of the largest amateur boxing competitions in Europe and has been a proving ground for famous fighters like Anthony Joshua. Between June 17-19 Victoria-based boxer Terris Smith was showing her mettle in the ring.
Smith won her first two fights but lost in the final in a split decision. Smith wasn’t the only B.C. boxer who succeeded in London. Braydon Horcoff, who used to train at the Island MMA Training Centre in Victoria and won best male boxer at Haringey. The team as a whole won four gold medals and two silver medals.
“I really do believe there’s a lot of good boxers out of here. I think logistically we’re challenged in the sense of we’re a very large province with not a lot of people in it. So sometimes it’s hard to get the experience that we would like to have. But we just proved internationally where the depth of epoxy is in this province,” said Jason Heit, a coach at the Island MMA Training Centre who travelled with the team.
Three fights in three days is tough physically but in some ways, Smith said she preferred it.
“We’re in Europe, not at home, so you can’t go and get a massage or go do our normal things – we’re sharing an Airbnb with six people, there’s one bathroom, the bathtub doesn’t work (so you) can’t take a bath. Obviously physically you get worse but mentally I got better. So it’s kind of funny the way that works because when you fight one day and when you keep going you have that momentum to build on. So it’s just an opposite thing – physically and mentally. I think I would rather be more mentally prepared than physically.”
Getting those fights makes a positive change from the past two years of COVID where fights were hard to come by, particularly on the women’s side, said Smith.
“Previously I was fighting the same people, I fought some girl probably four times now. But now there’s just more people involved, and now being at a higher level there are more opportunities to go into these international events and travel across Canada just to get more get some more experience.”
Smith now faces a summer of strength training before her next fight in October before preparing again ahead of provincials and nationals early next year.
If Smith wins at nationals that could put her in line for the Olympic team in 2024.
READ MORE: WATCH: Local female boxer rings in silver at first national championship
ALSO READ: Boxing making Island comeback in Esquimalt
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