A female boxer who trains with the Rimbey Boxing Club has taken another big step in reaching the top of her sport.
Sixteen year-old Kandi Wyatt of Rocky Mountain House faced two seasoned boxers at the Canadian Junior Nationals held in Windsor, Ontario on the last weekend of January, and came away with a championship after out-pointing both opponents.
“My first fight was against a girl from Quebec that went all three rounds and the score ended up being 40-19 for me,” Wyatt said. “That moved me on to the finals against Stephanie Walker out of Nova Scotia. That bout also went three rounds and the final score of that one ended up being 30-14.”
Wyatt said she stuck to the basics during the tournament and as a result, raked up more than enough points to sway the judge’s opinions in her favour even though she did not record a knockdown.
“In the first fight I actually got a bit confused. I though we were going to go four rounds but we only went three, so I wasn’t as aggressive as I could have been in the first round,” she said. “But I used a lot of straight punches – that really helped me in my final bout too actually because the girl I boxed threw a lot of big hooks so just throwing straight punches is how I accumulated all my points in that one. In my second fight I did the same thing with a lot of aggressive right hands and kept the pressure on.”
Wyatt said she had met her first opponent before at a national tournament two years ago in Sarnia, Ontario and added that winning the tournament has given her a big boost of confidence.
Wyatt also fought this past weekend on a Club Card in Edmonton and is looking forward to more of the same at the end of February as well as a big tournament back in Edmonton in April.
“There’s another club Card in Regina at the end of February so I’m hoping to get a fight there,” she said. “Then there’s the Golden Gloves in April in Edmonton and after that the season will wind down and I’ll take a couple on months off and start up again in September.”
As for the annual tournament in Kansas City where she really made a name for herself, Wyatt said it’ll have to wait for at least another year as she’s on the verge of taking a step up into a much larger age group that features fighters in age from 17 to 34.
“I’m going to take a year off and go back to Kansas City when I turn 18,” said Wyatt who’ll turn 17 this March. “It’s just such a large bracket and I’m at the bottom of it. If I can take just one more year – I’m also moving up in age group in Alberta so that’ll get me more fights and experience and hopefully it’ll help me in the long run.”
While she may be taking things a bit slower over the next little while, it certainly won’t stop her from lending a hand in the development of some younger boxers, especially two who were also subjects of recent stories in the Rimbey Review.
When she isn’t training herself, Wyatt spends plenty of time ‘showing the ropes’ to both Cory Regnier and Laramie Hollingsworth, something that has endeared herself with both head coach Mike Smith and assistant coach Darcy Hollingsworth.
“The great thing about this club is that we have Kandi here for the kids to spar with and she is such a great role model for the kids at this club that it definitely brings out the best and helps all of our kids along,” the senior Hollingsworth said.
“Without her it would take a lot longer to get these kids whipped into shape,” Smith added. “I know when she spars with Cory he just shakes his head and wonders how he can beat this girl and how did she get to be that good. So without her, I probably would have sore guts and a sore head.”