Kenny Lally has done his part, now it's up to boxing officials to decide whether he gets to compete in the 2015 Pan Am Games.
The 25-year-old from Prince George punched out his sixth national title, scoring a unanimous 56-kilogram decision over Bradley Wilcox of Hamilton, Ont., Saturday afternoon at the elite national championships in Mississauga. Ont.
For Lally, who stepped away from boxing for a year to recharge his batteries, the chance to fight in the Pan Am Games next August in Toronto proved irresistible. But to get there as a qualifier and regain his title, Lally had to dig down deep to persevere through one of his toughest tournaments in 12 years as a boxer.
"I knew it was going to be hard coming back after taking a year off and I didn't draw the easy way, I went a very tough way and I showed I'm still the champion," said Lally. "I got cut, I had to battle through a lot of things, and I still have to grasp what happened, but I did it and now I'm a six-time national champion."
In his opening bout Wednesday against Marc Andre Gauthier of Quebec, Lally suffered a large gash above his right eye when both boxers made head contact. Lally's corner was able to control the bleeding the rest of the fight so it didn't obstruct his vision and he went on to win unanimously.
In the semifinals Lally took on a well-rested Rodolfo Valasquez of Hamilton, who received a bye and did not fight on Wednesday. Although Valasquez drew blood from the same wound with a punch, the internal stitches and glue held together and Lally was able to advance to the final with another unanimous victory.
Against Wilcox, Lally took a hard shot on the chin in the first round didn't start showing his superiority until the second round. In the third round, Lally was at his best., avoiding his opponent's attempts to reopen the cut by stepping away from the punches and countering with left hooks, which landed.
"He hit me right on the chin and it stumbled me a little bit but I've been in this game a lot and I composed myself," said Lally, a three-time senior champion. "There were four other B.C. boxers fighting for gold after me and I'm a veteran and I had to lead by example and I adapted to what [Wilcox] was going to do.
"He tried many times to open [the wound], when he was in close he was rubbing his head on it, but every person was doing that. It was inevitable I was going to get hit there. But he couldn't hit my eye because I kept stepping back. I controlled the ring and my left hook was my money punch."
This is the first year at the elite tournament boxers weren't wearing headgear, a rule change which applies to senior fighters adopted last year to make the sport more fan friendly. Until Wednesday, Lally had never been cut in 110 fights.
Bob Pegues, Lally's Inner City Boxing Club coach, said it was a credit to the medical staff in Ontario that Lally was able to continue in the tournament despite his injury.
"The eye was fine, it didn't play a part at all in the last fight," said Pegues. "They worked on it most of [Friday] night and he kept waking up every three of four hours to ice it and push the swelling out.
"There's so much controversy over this no-headgear thing, they're going above and beyond to make sure it doesn't prevent a guy like Kenny from being out right away. The guy who won the whole thing could have been out the first day."
With Pegues serving as head coach of Team West at the national tournament, B.C. posted its best national results in recent memory, winning two gold, four silver and one bronze medal.
Sassan Haghigat-Joo of North Vancouver won the 69 kg title with a win Saturday over Mohamed Elabdoulli of Quebec. The B.C. silver medalists were Darcy Hinds of New Westminster (75 kg), Jacob Varga of Victoria (81kg), Alexandra Strickland of Victoria (women's 60 kg), Evelyn Calado of New Westminster (women's 48 kg) and . River Tucker of New Westminster (54 kg female) won bronze.
"It's not a fluke that happened," said Lally. "It's because of Bob and all the time he takes out of his life to put those camps on and teach them how to fight."
Lally's next fight is scheduled for Nov. 29 in New Westminster at the B.C. Golden Gloves championships. With six members of the B.C. team invited to the upcoming Pan Am training camps, Pegues said the team will likely travel to Kansas City for the Ringside tournament in July.
Just seven male weight classes and three female weight classes will be featured in the Pan Am Games.
