Boxing is approaching another Golden Age in Quebec

QuEBEC City — The crowd was red-hot for the twelfth round of the WBO bantamweight title fight last January between Jason Moloney and Saul Sanchez. The casual fan who attended the Videotron Center in Quebec City might be surprised to hear that no fighter came out of Quebec, let alone Canada, but when boxing fans are willing to meet good fights, the atmosphere becomes difficult to pass through in any match. .

It wasn't a bad crowd for the opening battle of a televised tripleheader.

More than 10,000 fans packed the arena that night for the event, headlined by joint light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev defending against Callum Smith, with more than 4,000 already in the building when the fights started at 6pm. most of the crowd doesn't arrive until before the main event.

Quebec, a French-speaking province in eastern Canada, has a long boxing tradition dating back to the early days of organized sports. Just over a decade ago, Quebec used to be one of the hottest boxing markets in the world, with local favorites like Lucien Bute, Jean Pascal and Adonis Stevenson creating a hometown buzz that rivaled the excitement of a big fight in Las Vegas.

As the scene begins to resurface, some hope that Quebec boxing will see another Golden Era. The promoter of the latest surge of interest in the Quebec boxing scene has been Eye of the Tiger Management, a Montreal company that will promote Saturday's event at the Videotron Center next to Top Rank, Christian Mbilli talking to the indefatigable Sergiy Derevyanchenko. a major ESPN/ESPN+ broadcast event.

Camille Estephan, who founded Eye of the Tiger in 2008, says this event will be the seventh this year to be broadcast live on ESPN or ESPN+. Although Eye of the Tiger acquired Quebec's mighty Interbox in 2016, they didn't immediately experience the periods of success the company had enjoyed, although with relentless promotion a new generation of fans has begun to tune in.

“We have a strong market in Quebec that we have built. We have a strong fan base. They know their boxing well. They value people who will bring fireworks, they love fighters who want to put on a show, who give their all,” said Estephan.

“We need a world champion, and if one of these guys breaks through we're there.”

Estephan hopes that Mbilli (27-0, 23 knockouts) will lead the team. The 29-year-old super middleweight contender, who was born in Cameroon and raised in France, represented France in the 2016 Olympics and has grown to become a top contender at 168 kilograms in front of the country's fans, having fought in Canada 15 times.

Derevyanchenko (15-5, 10 KOs) represents the biggest test of his young career. The 38-year-old Brooklyn-based Ukrainian has pushed Jaime Munguia, Gennadiy Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs to their limits, and could earn decisions in some of those fights. The winner could be an enticing challenge to United super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who is the highest paid boxer to face today.

Anchoring the undercard will be several homegrown boxers on their roster, including Wilkens Mathieu (9-0, 6 KOs), a 19-year-old super middleweight born and raised in Quebec City, and Thomas Chabot (10-0). , 8 KOs) from nearby Thetford Mines, and Leila Beaudoin (11-1, 1 KOs), a young lightweight from the north, Riviere-du-Loup, who will face Lizbeth Crespo from Bolivia (15-7, 4 KOs) and the WBO international belt is at stake in their ten round.

Chabot, a 24-year-old who represented Canada in international tournaments as a playmaker, believes the local scene will catch fire again like it did in the days of Bute, a fellow southpaw Chabot once looked up to as a child. He believes he has the kind of fun style that will help usher in those days.

“I absolutely think that Quebec will go back to where it was. We have many prospects coming there like Christian Mbilli who is the best in the world [with the WBC]so I expect more exposure for Quebec fighters at the international level. We also have a lot of new prospects like Wilkens Mathieu who has great potential, and myself. I bring the same kind of excitement as Arturo Gatti, giving everything in the ring. That's what makes boxing so popular and I believe I represent that too,” said Chabot.

Thomas Chabot stopped Armando Ramirez in his second round TKO win in 2022. Photo by Vincent Ethier/EOTTM©2022

It's not just a professional scene that's thriving in Quebec. After a lull in 2020 and 2021 caused by venue closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of amateur boxers registered in Quebec has returned to pre-pandemic levels. According to figures shared by The Ring by Boxing Quebec, which oversees amateur boxing in the province, there are 5,108 registered boxers in 2024, up from 4,125 in 2023, and just shy of 5,454 boxers in 2019. Those boxers represent 132 different clubs, which is the highest number of registered gyms in ten years of shared data.

The two boxers who represented Canada at the Olympics in Paris, Wyatt Sanford and Tammara Thibeault, are both based in Quebec, and Sanford received the country's first boxing medal, a bronze in the men's 63.5 kilogram category, in 28 years.

There is also no shortage of world-class boxing trainers in the region, including Marc Ramsay, who trains Montreal-based Russian Artur Beterbiev, and Russ Anber, Oleksandr Usyk's cutter who owns and operates Rival Boxing Gear, and the Grant brothers, Howard. and Otis, former champions who now run Grant Brothers Boxing just outside of Montreal.

Quebec's love of boxing is not limited to boxers born or raised in Canada. The Eye of the Tiger's roster is an International Boxing talent pool, featuring boxers like Venezuela's Albert Ramirez (18-0, 15 KOs) and Osleys Iglesias (11-0, 10 KOs), a Cuban super middleweight who will see the match. against former world title challenger Sena Agbeko on the Mbilli-Derevyanchenko card.

Estephan says Quebecois fans are willing to accept fighters from abroad, as long as they can communicate with local fans. He went on to say that the important thing has been to familiarize the fans with their boxers from opening matches to the top boxers, using the media and the documentaries they produce.

“If fighters have talent, they follow them. Obviously it always helps if they are local but it doesn't stop there. They want to see champions, they want to see good people and they want to know their stories. “Grassroots is about selling tickets one person at a time, bringing them together with us, making them truly part of the group,” said Estephan, who promotes The Ring number. 1 (Two), no. 3 (Iglesias) and no. 6 (Erik Bazinyan) competing at 168 pounds.

If anyone knows how to blend in with a new culture, it's Estephan. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Estephan and his family left a comfortable life to move to Quebec in 1986 to escape the violence of the Lebanese Civil War. Estephan began pondering his career in the boxing business in the 2000s, after a meeting session with Montreal-based Bermane Stiverne.

Makhmudov scored a second-round KO of Miljan Rovcanin in May. Photo by Vincent Ethier/Eye of the Tiger

“I shouldn't have done that. Then I got back into shape and wanted to dance and I saw how beautiful that boy was,” said Estephan with a laugh. He became Stiverne's manager around 2008, and began promoting Stiverne's last matches before leading him to the WBC heavyweight title in 2014.

Arslanbek Makhmudov, a 6'5”, 260-pound heavyweight from Russia, is one of the Eye of the Tiger boxers who have been recruited by the Quebecois. The 35-year-old Makhmudov moved to Montreal to start his professional career in 2017. Makhmudov said he has discussed Beterbiev, a Russian transplant who has thrived since moving to Montreal, about following his path there. Although Makhmudov said that he has not had the opportunity to learn French much, his children are already speaking French.

“In Quebec, they love boxing to be honest. Even if you are not Canadian or Quebecois, they love boxing. They understand boxing,” said Makhmudov (19-1, 18 KOs) in English, a language he learned after moving to North America.

Makhmudov will be in for a make-or-break fight this Saturday, when he faces Italian puncher Guido Vianello (12-2-1, 10 KOs) in a ten-round main event. The two have met once before in the amateurs, in a World Series of Boxing bout in 2015, although the bout ended early due to an injury to Vianello.

Makhmudov hopes a win can help him regain the streak he lost last December, when he was stopped four rounds by Agit Kabayel in a fight where Makhmudov said he was suffering from a broken right hand and an unsuccessful training camp. you have allowed him to grow up properly.

“I know that this war has not changed me. It changed me but in a good way. I became more hungry, more disciplined and more disciplined. I want to show the whole world that I'm still here,” said Makhmudov.

The key ingredient to boxing's renaissance is a breakout star who connects with the big boxing world and makes that region the home of fight fans near and far. If one or more shows up, Quebec has a party again like it's 2010.

“I think we are a boxing community that relies too much on television. That's great, but you have to have fans behind you, strong fans. “They become strong when they know the story, when they know the people, it's not just about the boxer and whether he wins or loses, but how he got here, what motivates him, what his weaknesses and strengths are,” said Estephan. They want champions, champions in the ring and out of the ring.”

Ryan Songalia has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler and The Guardian, and is part of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism Class of 2020. He can be reached at [email protected].