Mission boxer Cody Brown wasn’t as busy as he might have expected during a recent tournament in Puerto Rico, but he was successful.
The 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Heritage Park Secondary was selected for a Canadian team which traveled to San Juan, the capital city, to take on Puerto Rican fighters.
“We fought in a cockfighting arena,” he said with a chuckle. “It was probably 35 degrees in the arena – it was hotter in the arena than it was outside.”
Fighting at 132 pounds, Brown won his opening bout, dropping the first round but winning the next two.
He was supposed to have one more fight, but the other boxer’s coach pulled him out at the last minute.
“I had my gear on . . . but he didn’t want to take the fight – he said I was too thick,” Brown said. “I was actually pretty mad, because I flew all the way over there. But what can you do?”
Brown, who trains at Bridge Street Boxing Club, is a four-time national champion.
His next challenge is the upcoming Youth World Boxing Championships in Bulgaria, where he’ll be representing Canada once again. A top-eight finish there would land him a berth to the Youth Olympic Games in China in August.
