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

BC's CANADIAN CHAMPIONS & CONTENDERS

THE HERE & NOW and CANADIAN FLASHBACKS: By Brian W. Zelley

THE 2010 SENIOR NATIONALS

For the 2010 Senior Nationals, the BOXING BC came up short with no Canadian Champions. One 2009 senior champion.,
KENNY LALLY from Prince George dropped a decision to Nova Scotia's JOEY LAVIOLETTE, and 2009 Cadet champion
STEFAN MELIDEO of Nanaimo stepped up to see action in open senior competition and lost. Then there was Prince George boxer MARCUS HUME who dropped a controversial decision. Other BC boxers also lost in early competition.

The various BC boxing clubs have received a wake-up call that they all need to step-up to meet future challenges
and reawaken the achievements of past decades when BC boxers did well such as the Seventies with such champions as
Chris Ius, Darryl Olsen, Derrick Hoyt, Frank Scott. Freddy Fuller, Jack Meda, Jack Snaith, Joe Cooke, and Les Hamilton.

In the Eighties we had the likes of Dale Walters, Wayne Welsh, Joe Pendry, and Manny Sobral
then came the likes of Jason Heit and Donny Orr.

Donny Orr was the Victoria warrior that despite injuries came back in 2000 to defeat the Canadian champion
twice in box-off competition to earn a spot on the 2000 Canadian Olympic Boxing Team, then followed-up with
the Canadian title in 2001.

Looking at those champions such as Fuller, Scott and Olsen, they were products of the Sixties,
and earned their accomplishments through a lengthy process with many actual bouts from numerous
club shows and tournaments including Golden Gloves activity in places like Vancouver, Portland, Seattle
and Tacoma. For instance between all of the heavy tournaments in 1968, they took time to travel with others
to engage in high level club shows such as an All-Star club show in Seattle which included some top level USA
competition.

Looking back from 1966 to 1984, in the lighter weight classes, how could we forget about the many boxers, fighters and warriors with the two brightest shining stars being FRANKIE SCOTT and DALE WALTERS.