Quesnel boxer Brittyn Carter had an impressive showing in the ring against the more experienced fighter Leslie Chavez during the Second Annual Atlanta Classic Women’s Only Boxing Tournament Feb.14-16.
Carter, who is 14, has only been boxing for three years but has exploded onto the fight scene. She is so talented that in order to find opponents who can match up to her in the ring in her age and weight class, she usually has to look for fights outside of the province.
Carter lost the fight in a split decision but gave Chavez, who is a two-time U.S. national champion and has more than 20 fights under her belt, a real run for her money, wining the third round.
Wally Doern, owner and coach of Two Rivers Boxing Club where Carter trains, says he was impressed with Carter’s fight and believes she has the ability to win against more experienced opponents like Chavez.
“Brittyn won the third round, and that’s where she turned it up and really started to score,” he said. “In the first two rounds, from what I’ve seen, she was a little too cautious and the other girl scored just enough to nudge the score in her favour, so it was a very, very close fight. But [Carter] certainly wasn’t outclassed by Chavez, obviously, as it was a split decision.”
Carter is happy with how she held herself in the ring in Atlanta but is determined to improve and hopes to fight Chavez again, believing that the rematch will see her arm raised at the end of the bout.
“The fight was good,” she said. “I lost a split decisions to Chavez. She’s won gold at the Junior Olympics for the last two years, so she’s way more experienced than me, so I was really excited to fight her. I’ve been working and training really hard, and hopefully I’ll rematch her down the road, and that will be really awesome because with more training and more thought put into the fight, I think I’ll win.”
Carter was excited to fight in the event but also to be a part of an all-female card.
“It was one of the bigger fights I’ve been in, and it was an all-female card, so the whole event was about empowering women so that was really cool,” she said. “They even gave out Barbie boxing dolls, which I thought was really cool.”
Carter trains at home every day for at least two hours on top of her training at Two Rivers Boxing Club, and Doern believes the hard work she puts in really shows. He sees a bright future for her in the sport.
“I believe she has a very good chance of winning at the provincial level, and with that being said, then she would and could represent B.C. in the nationals,” he said.
Carter says she still gets nervous before stepping into the ring for a big fight, but with the more experience she gains, she is getting better at focusing that energy towards her goal.
“Every single fight, the nerves are always there — they are always gonna be there — but you just have to get used to them and learn to control them,” she said.
Up next for Carter will be the Diamond Belt Invitational event in Idaho this spring, an event she has been to before and at which she won a belt last year.
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