Don’t ask her if there isn’t anything she can’t do.
At 25, Terris Smith has already acquired her Chartered Professional Accountant designation and last month became the B.C. boxing champion for the women’s lightweight category (57 kilograms or 125 lbs).
Smith is one of two local boxers who won a B.C. championship at the recent provincials and will compete at the Super Channel Boxing Canada national championships at Bear Mountain in April.
Not too long ago Smith was a regular training out of Studio 4 gym downtown when she was pulled into the Fight For the Cause charity boxing event.
“As soon as I started training for boxing I started loving it,” Smith said. “I loved the fighting to, so I just stuck with it.”
As fierce and determined as she is, boxing is the most competitive sport Smith’s participated in apart from soccer as a teenager. The discipline, the training and the environment of it are what stoke Smith’s fire.
And it’s in her home city of Langford that she’ll compete for a spot on the national team and a chance to pursue an Olympic dream.
“It should be an advantage to fight in my home town,” Smith said. “It’s a good opportunity to show everyone I know here what I can do, and hopefully have them cheer for me.
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The path to a B.C. boxing title was not much different for Brandon Colantonio. The heavyweight fighter (201 lbs.) showed up to Island Boxing and MMA to train in mixed martial arts and ended up in a kickboxing class.
“Then I figured out I just loved boxing, I fell in love with everything about it,” Colantonio said.
At 23 he’s young and has plenty of fights behind him. He won B.C.’s heavyweight title last month and is now aiming for a national championship. But finding competitive fights as an amateur wasn’t easy.
“There were times when I had to put weight on to go up to super heavyweight [220 lbs.], or cut weight to fight as a light heavyweight [178 lbs.],” he said. “You have to do whatever it takes to get fights.”
Both adding and dropping weight required a lot of discipline but adding weight was straight forward, it was about adding calories.
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“Fatso peanut butter, I kept a jar of it in my carpentry belt with a spoon and would just eat it by the spoonful whenever I thought about it,” Colantonio said.
At 90 calories per tablespoon, including “the good fats,” Fatso helped do the trick.
To get ready for nationals Colantonio’s and Smith’s coach, Jason Heit of Island Boxing, said they’ll be busy.
“They’ll have to travel, we’ll try to visit some Vancouver and Washington gyms to get them sparring with good competition,” Heit said.
The Super Channel national championships are April 23 to 27 in the tennis bubble of the Westin Bear Mountain Golf Resort.
