I managed after all to attend the Open house day at the new location for the North Burnaby Boxing Club. Operating since 2004, they have grown and have now expanded into new digs. The club’s new home is just beside Revs Bowling & Entertainment Center, at 5502 Lougheed Hwy., next to the Holdom Skytrain Station.

The club’s new location is due to its growth and maturation as a club. It was put together over several weeks by club members, who converted two raquetball courts over a period of several weeks, rebuilding the club, installing the heavy wood beam mezzanine by hand, and the club is complete with a large selection of heavy bags, speed bags, ring, spinner bikes, ropes, weight room adjacent, and years of boxing memorabilia transferred to the walls. The title club banner was cut out from the wall of their previous location. The coaching staff of Rob Bortolazzo, Alister Brodie, Rosalia Calla, Bill Kennedy, Andy Mavros, and Manny Sobral bring world class depth and experience in championship level professional and amateur boxing into the club.

The club coaches Manny Sobral and Alister Brodie are also operating West Coast Promotions, for promoting fights like the upcoming MMA fight night at River Rock Casino on January 23, 2010.

I also got to meet Robert Couzens, Canada’s top amateur fighter at 152 lbs and a likely member of Canada’s Olympic team at the Olympics in 2012. As well, Rosalia Calla was there training for an upcoming fight in Montreal. Gym fees are a super affordable 40 bucks a month.  That is a totally affordable price to train somewhere. The club is totally accessible being only a 1 minute walk away from Holdom skytrain station.

Website: http://www.bcboxers.com/

Here are the photos. Link to the whole set in my Flickr.com pool.

North Burnaby Boxing Club

Boxing Coach Rob Bortolazzo

Boxing Coaches Rob Bortolazzo and Manny Sobral

Fighter Robert Couzens and Boxing Coach Manny Sobral

North Burnaby Boxing Club

Fighter Rosalia Calla training with Manny Sobral

Fighter Rosalia Calla training with Manny Sobral

Boxing Coach Bill Kennedy

Website: http://www.bcboxers.com/

Link to the whole set in my Flickr.com pool.

Open House at North Burnaby Boxing Club
Sunday January 3 2010

The ‘NEW’ North Burnaby Boxing Club is open on Sunday, January 3rd from 12-4pm for viewing and recreational/competitive registration. Come check out the new NBBC gym at Revs Bowling & Entertainment Center at 5502 Lougheed Hwy. next to the Holdom Skytrain Station!

See you there…

For more information please contact Rob Bortolazzo, NBBC Coach at 604.790.4154

The North Burnaby Boxing Club is a not-for-profit society offering boxing instructions to the public at an affordable price. Our coaches are NCCP certified and have over a 100 years of combined experience in coaching the “sweet science.”

Chess Boxing is a new sport, literally combining the brawn of boxing and the brain of chess. It is a biathlon sport that tests the mental capacity of fighters by alternating rounds of boxing and speed chess. Think of fighting a boxing round, then switching immediately to a chessboard and clock, with heart pounding, adrenaline rushing, head and body stinging from blows, and then making purely decisions under the pressure of the clock.   The sport has developed a popular following in Europe, evidently, since its main site, http://wcbo.org/ is offered in English, Russian, German, and Spanish. An old German friend of mine always Chess and Boxing had a lot in common – both being games of strategy, where both deal blows to the opposite side. The objectives cannot be achieved simply by acting recklessly, but eventually you can wear down your opponent, take away their weapons, and inflict greater and greater damage. Boxing could be contact Chess. The opposite could also be true, Chess is cerebral boxing.

A quote from the site:

Chessboxing

The basic idea in chessboxing is to combine the #1 thinking sport and the #1 fighting sport into a hybrid that demands the most of its competitors – both mentally and physically.

In a chessboxing fight two opponents play alternating rounds of chess and boxing. The contest starts with a round of chess, followed by a boxing round, followed by another round of chess and so on.
A contest consists of 11 rounds, 6 rounds of chess, 5 rounds of boxing. A round of chess takes 4 minutes. Each competitor has 12 minutes on the chess timer.

A round of boxing takes 3 minutes. Between the rounds there is a 1 minute pause, during which competitors change their gear. The contest is decided by: checkmate (chess round), exceeding the time limit (chess round), retirement of an opponent (chess or boxing round), KO (boxing round), or referee decision (boxing round). If the chess game ends in a stalemate, the opponent with the higher score in boxing wins. If there is an equal score, the opponent with the black pieces wins. (Link to source).

Interestingly, Chess Boxing may have a double benefit, cleaning up both the sport of Boxing, and the sport of Chess, as both of these arts have had their reputations sullied in recent years by scandals.

More videos at the chess boxing website…

The Chess Boxing I am writing about here is certainly not to be confused with the Chinese Chess Boxing, a form of Kung-Fu, and one of the great early classic early Kung-Fu movies, The Mystery Of Chess Boxing:

There could be more hybridisations of physical sports with intellectual pursuits to come. Now we have Chess Boxing. What could be next? MMA and Rubic’s cubes? Or Muay Thai and Jenga? How about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and jigsaw puzzles? Call it, dare I say, Jig-Jitsu?

How about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and jigsaw puzzles? Call it, dare I say, Jig-Jitsu?

Boxing Ring in Puerto Vallarta

I was in Puerto Vallarta in May with a friend. I heard about a boxing match and we went to it. There were 14 fights, culminating with the challenge to the Super Welterweight division for the World Hispanic Title – Villanueva vs Ortega, the challenger. The ring was in a patio setting. Boxing is deep in Mexican culture and the first few fights were between toddlers. Fortunately, the kids wear headgear and know how to box. The night moved on to better and better fights, and eventually to a few pro fights at the end, culminating with the title challenge. But the last fight wasn’t until 1:30 AM! Ortega went down early in the second round  with a combination and right punch on the jaw.

Ortega

Peter Buckley

From the Daily Mail Online: Worlds Worst Boxer Throws In the Towel after 256 defeats. Here is Peter Buckley, 39, a guy who fights on almost a moments notice, and even fights so often that he has been known to show up for a fight with a black eye from the fight before. To enter the ring that many times, he has to have a fighting spirit like any champion. If you can understand the dedication that Buckley has for boxing, you have to be in awe of him. He has the guts to take the punishment and get back up again. The Daily Mail article also points out he has taken on many fighters in his career that have gone on to be world champions, among them Duke McKenzie, Scott Harrison, Naseem Hamed, Michael Brodie, Gavin Rees and Colin McMillian. He received an honorary ringwalk before his 200th fight in honor of his experience as a boxer while in Manchester. To the British boxing community, Peter Buckley is no ordinary guy. They wouldnt give him any honors just because he fights. He has held on to boxing long after greater fighters have faded away. Cheers, Peter.