NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN Medicine Hat Boxing Club's Wyatt Grove knocks Sandhills' Jacob Kobelsky to the canvas during a 70-kilogram bout at the Nieman-Page Memorial and Alberta Silver Gloves boxing tournament on Saturday at HomeStay Inn and Suites.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Wyatt Grove and Drayton Valley spent the past few months pushing each other to bring out their best when the time arrived to make their debut in the ring.
The pair of local boxers finally got their moment in the spotlight Saturday at the Nieman-Page Memorial and Alberta Silver Gloves – and both made sure the jam-packed hometown crowd had something to cheer about by leaving the ring at the HomeStay Inn and Suites with an undefeated record.
“It was fantastic. I had such a blast out there in my first fight,” said Grove, who defeated Sandhills’ Jacob Kobelsky by split decision in a 70-kilogram bout. “Taking home a win, it just felt really nice.”
Grove, 15, sent the fists flying early – getting the better of his opponent in a first-round slugfest and dropping Kobelsky to the canvas before managing the next two rounds to victory.
“That first part was pretty crazy,” said Grove. “I caught him pretty good with a few rights and then I knocked him over. That was really cool, but after that I lost quite a bit of steam, but then I just had to keep going. I just had to push through the rest of the fight and keep getting more hits in.”
As for Valley, the 13-year-old fighter took it to Weyburn SooLine’s Tauren Jack in a three-round 60-kilogram battle. While he left with the unanimous-decision victory, Valley says it took almost everything he had in the tank.
“I was very tired at the very end of the round, but it felt good to win,” said Valley. “I’m proud.”
Grove and Valley may fight in different weight classes, but that didn’t stop them from teaming up as sparring partners at the Medicine Hat Boxing Club in the fall.
“We’re pretty evenly matched even though he’s a lot older than me and a lot taller than me, he has a lot more reach,” Valley said of Grove. “I just thought if I could evenly match up against him, I’m positive I can beat (Jack).”
While Valley is 10-kilograms lighter, two years younger and considerably shorter, Grove says none of that really seems relevant when the two are toe-to-toe.
“He’s a bit lighter than me but can fight me pretty much equally,” said Grove. “I’d say he’s really good. He’s really quick and that keeps me on my toes.”
Valley moved back to Medicine Hat from Regina in July and joined up with the local boxing club as soon as he could.
“It’s closed during the summer so I joined during September when it opened,” said Valley, who lived in Medicine Hat from Grade 2 to Grade 6 before moving to Regina. “When I first started I was actually in kickboxing then I switched to boxing when I moved here … I learned that the training is a lot different.”
Valley added those differences were tough to overcome in the early going, but he quickly adjusted to the new approach.
“I had to re-learn stuff that I learned a different way,” he said. “In boxing there’s a lot more skipping, there’s a lot more preparation for fights, so I got into preparing for this.”
Medicine Hat Boxing Club coach Kerry Fahlman says he was very happy with the way his new fighters performed in their debut Saturday, especially considering both picked up the sport in the past year.
“They came a long ways,”
said Fahlman. “We worked them really hard the last month, worked four-five days a week with them and really got them ready for this. And they both stepped up tonight. I thought they did really well.”
Valley and Grove were two of six Medicine Hat fighters in action at the Nieman-Page Memorial and Alberta Silver Gloves, which ran Saturday and Sunday. With their Saturday victories, Grove and Valley advanced to fight again Sunday, however both dropped their ensuing matches and settled for silver.
Valley lost to Hayden Gallant, of Rival Cochrane, while Grove was bested by Lac La Biche’s Owen Pitcher.
Earlier Saturday, Medicine Hat’s Jacob Walne picked up a win over Leader’s Ryder Bredy in a 32-kilogram fun box, while fellow Hatter Francis Ang lost a close 60-kilogram fight with Olympus Calagry’s Samuel Fajardo.
In Saturday’s main events, Medicine Hat’s Janick Lacroix defeated Lac La Biche’s Muhammad Mograbi in an 81-kilogram fight for gold, and Hatter Tristan Deveau earned a win over Seth Laboucane in a 75-kilogram bout. Deveau’s victory advanced him into another bout Sunday, however Fahlman said he was pulled due to injury and forced to settle for bronze.
While Fahlman says it’s always great to have a big local presence at the event, he added it can put a lot of pressure on young boxers – but he was pleased to see them thrive in front of their home crowd this weekend.
“We want to bring in locals, that helps us to get lots of people here, because you get a local boy coming in and he’s going to bring 10 people with him,” said Fahlman. “It’s good for us – that’s what keeps us running financially – but honestly it’s easier for these kids to have their first fight away from home. You don’t have all the pressure from the crowd.”
But in the face of that pressure, the bulk of Medicine Hat’s boxers still managed to feed off the crowd, which packed the HomeStay Inn and Suites conference room shoulder-to-shoulder for Saturday night’s fights.
“Medicine Hat is a great boxing city,” said Fahlman. “We don’t have to work real, real hard to sell the tables, people call us.”
