Walking into the Port Kells Boxing Club, located in the basement of the Port Kells Community Centre, feels like stepping back in time. The tiny, fluorescent-lit concrete room is littered with yellowing posters of past champions and boxing fight card posters of local and world championship matches.
Years of sweat hang thickly in the air.
Punching bags dangle from the ceiling amid speed bags and skipping ropes, and a wall-sized mirror commands one side of the room. A boxing ring beaten down by many epic battles is tucked away in the corner.
Sixteen-year-old Frank Hurt Secondary student Eric Basran sits alone on a small wooden bench in the gym putting on hand wrap – long strips of cotton material used to protect a fighter’s hands beneath his gloves.
He’s soon up shadow boxing in front of the mirror concentrating on his reflection, avoiding solid body shots and straight right-hand punches.
It’s his routine in a sport built on routine and Basran is realizing his practice is paying off.
He returned last week from Quebec City sporting a silver medal from the Canadian Youth Boxing Championships, held Jan. 20-24.
“He has natural athleticism and boxing ability,” said Al Harper, Basran’s coach. “He’s got that boxing sense and is able to know what other fighters are going to do before they do it.”
Fighting as a member of Team BC and representing the Queensborough Boxing Club, Basran, fighting in the 52-kilogram weight category, defeated a fighter from Quebec in his opening match. This moved him into the gold medal final against another Quebec fighter, Thomas Blumfield, who had nearly 80 fights under his belt and a recent second-place finish at the U.S. National Championships – a challenge not lost on his coaches.
After seeing how Basran’s gold-medal opponent handled his semi-final match, the head coach for Boxing BC, Bob Pegeus, wasn’t sure how Basran – a relative newcomer to the sport – would react.
“I was a little concerned about the final,” said Pegeus of Basran’s lack of experience only having seven previous fights.
“But every time we raise the bar, he jumps over it.”
In the final, Basran came out swinging, using his superior speed and footwork to win the first two rounds with a 10-9 score each. He even handed Blumfield a standing-eight-count in the second round with a solid over-hand right punch, meaning he landed a shot the referee felt warranted stopping the fight for eight seconds to assess the other fighter’s ability to continue.
The fight continued into the third round with Basran’s opponent coming on strong and landing a clean shot of his own during an exchange that warranted an eight-second count against Basran.
The final round was given to the Quebec fighter with a 10-8 score, which meant the match was tied.
At that point, two more judges were brought in, with the first still calling the match a tie. However the second judge gave the match to Basran’s opponent, meaning the silver medal went to Basran.
“At first I was disappointed, but then I realized he had almost 80 more fights than me,” Basran said. “Hopefully I get on the Canadian team and get a chance to go to some international tournaments like the Commonwealth Games.”
His goal is to make it to the Olympics.