FLYWEIGHT to LIGHTWEIGHT

THE FAST & FURIOUS LIGHTER BOXERS - FLYWEIGHT to LIGHTWEIGHT - CANADIAN CHAMPIONS

For the 2010 Canadian National Championships, the bantamweight and lightweight divisions provided some interesting twists and turns in the history of amateur boxing in Canada. At the end of five days of action, it was Nova Scotia boxer
JOEY LAVIOLETTE that would regain the bantamweight title and Alberta's CAM O'CONNELL that would be declared
the new Canadian "Elite" Senior Open boxing champion that ended-up being an all Alberta lightweight final after both
Cam and Alberta's ALEX RYNN eliminated the competition in earlier action.

BANTAMWEIGHTS - With his back-to-back 2009 and 2010 victory bantamweight champion JOEY LAVIOLETTE
stands tall among other former bantamweight champions such as Chris Ius, Les Hamilton, Bill Ranelli, Dale Walters
and Geronimo Bie. Time will tell if he is able to win a Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games or Olympic medal,
but he has history on his side and the first test will be to make the 2010 Commonwealth Games boxing team.
Like some of the past champions by the time 2012 rolls around, he may be a featherweight contender.

LIGHTWEIGHTS - As new lightweight champion, it is difficult to predict the length of Cam's Championship
journey, but he has some slick shoes to fill with past champions such as Jose Martinez, Cleveland Denny, Asif Dar,
Bill Irwin and Michael Strange.

AS 2010 shifts into 2011, the question that can't be answered is what will become of KENNY LALLY and ALEX RYNN,
the same question could be asked of former champion BRANDT BUTT and light-welterweight STEFAN MELIDEO or
some of the new contenders such as MARCUS HUME and THOMAS SPEIRS. For British Columbia boxing, the coaches
need to study the history of boxing from 1966 to 1988, and try to go back in time to shine.

For boxing in British Columbia, there are many fine boxers, but they can't settle on being fine or nice. The boxers
and the coaches have a whole "heap" of rebuilding to do and that includes working on technical skills