St. Davids boxer Mckenzie Wright to fight for Olympic berth in December

Armed with her recent experience training and competing in South America last month, St. Davids boxer Mckenzie Wright feels ready to punch her ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics to represent Canada at 50 kilograms. 

Though her semi-final loss to the USA’s Jennifer Lozano on October 26 prevented her from securing that position via the Pan American Games, Wright told The Local this week that she’s excited to head to Montreal to take on the women who will be challenging her for that single spot. 

“It’s discouraging that I have to qualify this way,” she said, “but I grew so much as a boxer in the five weeks that I was down there, more so than I have in my entire career. There was so much exposure, and I’m excited to bring this version of me back into the ring domestically in Montreal.”

Wright and the other Canadian boxers spent three weeks ahead of those Santiago games training in the high altitude in Bogata, Colombia, and sparring with a few of the competitors from other countries who opted to prepare there.

“Every morning at 7:00 am we came down, gave a urine sample, then weighed in,” she explained. “Then there was oximeter testing and heart rate testing, then breakfast, then straight to training sessions. After that was lunch, a short rest, then right back into our afternoon training sessions. That’s all we did there.”

The experience paid dividends that she wasn’t fully aware of until the team began preparing for their matches in Santiago. 

“We had to re-acclimatize at sea level to get the full benefits of the altitude training,” she outlined. “That took five days before the start of competition. Our first training session there I felt like Superwoman. We were going really hard, but we were all feeling like we were barely breathing hard. I never felt that much in shape ever.”

Though the draw for her matches took place on Wednesday, October 18, Wright’s first match wasn’t until that Saturday, when she faced Aylin Dayana Jamez of Guatemala. Her bout was the first one on the card in front of a packed house at Santiago’s Olympic Training Center.

“It was so exciting, the venue was so electric,” she remembered. “I was a bit nervous, I had never experienced so much electricity in the air. The crowd started roaring, the lights were going crazy, there was smoke at the end of the fighter’s tunnel, my heart was just pumping. It’s the most excited I’ve ever been in my whole life. That was my highlight of the entire five weeks.”

The 33-year-old came out strong against Jamez and clearly won the first round. The Guatamalan’s strategy changed in round two, and Wright adapted on her way to victory.

“She was down, so she knew she had to scramble,” said Wright. “All she did was hold me. It turned into a messy wrestling match. It wasn’t very pretty, but I was still landing lots of clean shots and I don’t remember getting tagged by her too much. It made the scorecard a lot closer, but she couldn’t catch up.” 

With that first fight under her belt, Wright had a few days before her second bout, against Costa Rica’s Valeria Cardenas Abarca on Tuesday. She knew what adjustments she had to make after beating Jamez, but had to prepare for taking on a southpaw for the first time since 2016.

“I needed to have a training session on Sunday to go over what to do against a southpaw,” said Wright. “It requires some different positioning. We don’t have a lot of southpaws in Canada.”

Wright claims her fight against Abarca was her best performance of the games. 

“When we touched gloves, I realized she was much bigger than I had thought,” said Wright. “She tried to get in my face a little bit, but I learned from the first fight not to let her grab on or swarm me.”

After the first round, won by Wright, Boxing Canada coach Vincent Auclair told Wright to take a small step back and let Abarca rush, then fire a combination at her. With her nerves settled down after the first round, she was able to execute that strategy perfectly.

“Every time I would cut the angle on her,” she said, “I would make her miss. I would then capitalize by countering with full combinations, and they kept landing. I just took over the rest of the way, and it wasn’t a close match at all.”

Wright won that match 5-0, and punched her ticket to the semi-final, where a win against Jennifer Lozano of the USA would have qualified her for the Olympics. 

Wright held an advantage in both height and reach over the American, another left-hander. 

“I wasn’t worried about the southpaw factor this time, because I had already faced it,” she said. “I didn’t know much about Lozano, though, as I hadn’t faced her on the international scene before.” 

Though the first round saw Wright land a few combinations and force the American onto the defensive, the judges called the round in Lozano’s favour. 

“I was confident I took that round,” a dismayed Wright told The Local. “But it came up 4-1 for her. I was stunned. So in the second round I tried to push it, and I was landing some great shots. But the judges called if for her again. I haven’t looked back at the fight to analyze why yet.”

In her corner, Boxing Canada coach Danielle Bouchard told Wright to make sure she didn’t take a step backwards in the third round. And she didn’t, aggressively attacking her opponent for the final three minutes. But Lozano escaped enough of Wright’s punches to impress the judges on the way to a 5-0 decision. 

Wright earned a bronze medal in the loss. 

“It was a competitive and close fight,” Wright said this week. “I can’t be too disappointed in that. But at the same time it’s still a heartbreak because of how close I was to qualifying for the Olympics. It stings, for sure.”

But she will get her chance to earn her spot at the Olympic Team Trials in early December in Montreal. 

Wright has five weeks to train with her coach Jesse Sallows at his City Boxing Club in Niagara Falls to get ready to defend her spot as Canada’s representative at 50 kg. As the defender, she will get a bye for the first round, but she expects there will be nine other women trying to knock her out of that spot.

“There’s a target on my back, I’m the girl to beat,” said Wright. “I’ve failed many times before, but that’s what makes someone a champion, having to keep coming back.  After this tournament, I know there’s been a huge jump in my performance. My skills have gone to the next level. I’m confident that this is mine.”