Winning provincial boxing championships never gets old for Jag Seehra.
He's worn that crown 11 times in his career.
The 27-year-old from Prince George punched his way his 11th B.C. title a few weeks ago in Abbotsford, winning the 64-kilogram (141-pound) class to qualify for the national tournament in Quebec City.
"It always feels like I have a target on my back, it's always challenging because people want to beat me," said Seehra, who now makes his home in Nanaimo. "I'm just happy to be able to do it again this year and I'm excited to be going to nationals again."
Seehra opened the provincial tournament with a three-round win over Clive Fagan of Kelowna, then defeated Josh Slager of Kamloops in the gold-medal round. Seehra fought most of his career at 60kg but has moved up to the 64kg weight class because it's closer to his usual weight.
"It means bigger opponents who hit harder and it gives me my energy - I'm not losing eight pounds the night before (weigh-ins)," he said. "I'm actually walking around at 147 or 148, so to get down to 141 is not that bad."
Seehra, a member of Canada's national B team from 2012-13, will fight for the national title, April 24-30, and plans to keep busy in the ring to get him ready for the best in the country. He figures he'll have at least five fights in the new year before he heads to Quebec. He fought an exhibition bout in Kelowna two weeks ago and traveled to Cranbrook a couple days later expecting to fight but was unable to line up an opponent.
Seehra now lives in Nanaimo, where he works on a paving crew. He's resumed training with his Inner City Boxing Club coach, Bob Pegues at the Nanaimo Boxing Club. Pegues, a Nanaimo native, moved back to Vancouver Island a year ago.
"It's been awesome working with Bob again," said Seehra. "I went almost a year without a coach and that kind of sucked, but I made my way down to Nanaimo and we still went to nationals together.
"It's better to be here now and it's better to be on the Island. I can just hop on the ferry to get a fight in Vancouver. I'm getting better sparring and competition is close by."
Seehra's longtime Inner City clubmate, Kenny Lally, an 11-time provincial champion, seven-time national champ and 2015 Pan Am Games bronze medalist, retired from boxing in May after failing to qualify for the Olympic team. Still slugging at 27, Seehra says he has no plans to hang up his gloves anytime soon.
"I'm still healthy and I feel real good - I just want to keep going until the body says no more," he said.
