Hard work pays off for Kelowna boxers at B.C. tournament
Published 5:26 pm Tuesday, September 29, 2026
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Fighters from a Kelowna boxing club took home a haul of medals and attention from B.C. sporting officials after a successful tournament.
“We killed it,” said Geoff Lawrence, head coach at Madkatz Boxing.
The club took nine fighters to Chilliwack from Sept. 25 to 27 to compete in the Bronze Gloves competition and the Boxing BC Provincials held by the Boxing BC Association.
Provincial competitors Camille Walker and Nisha Gnanasingarajan made it to the finals, where they ultimately fell short of winning. Despite the losses, the two women will still have something to be excited over. Lawrence said Walker and Gnanasingarajan received some attention from Boxing BC officials and may get the coveted chance to represent the province at the national level.
Of the boxers who competed in the Bronze Gloves part of the tournament, three Matkatz fighters are coming home with medals, including Oleg Ovsiannikov, Phoenix Black and Sam Esebor.
Lawrence highlighted Black’s result at the tournament.
“He came to me (with a record of) 1-3. His skills were really not developed. We worked hard on Phoenix and he went 3-0 at this tournament. He is truly true to his name. The Phoenix is reborn for sure,” Lawrence said.
The head coach added that he believed Madkatz’ contingent of nine boxers was one of the larger groups in the tournament. Lawrence is proud of the fighters and the coaching work that prepared them.
“We’re doing it right here in Kelowna, because we’re turning kids’ careers around,” he said.
Lawrence attributed much of his fighters’ success to the amount of drilling they do in practice.
“I teach on the mitts, I practice on the bags and I perfect on our opponents,” he said.
“We do a fair amount of sparring, but we do a lot of contact drills. I’ve broken the fight down into three aspects: the inside aspect, the outside and the middle zones. And we drill that over and over and over again.”
Lawrence also mentioned the coaching work done by Miguel (Sugar Sheldon) Wood, one of Madkatz’ boxers who recently turned professional.