Jag Seehra is one step away from his national dream.
He's going for gold today at the Canadian senior boxing championships.
The 20-year-old Inner City Boxing Club member pounded out an 11-5 decision over Mickael Gadbois of Quebec in their 60-kilogram semifinal Thursday in Quebec City.
"All this time preparing was meant for this, I'm so focused and so ready, winning was all that was on my mind -- this is my time and I know it," said Seehra. "I knew this weight class was stacked and nobody really knew who I was. Now I'm climbing all the way up the ladder and people know I'm not just Kenny Lally's training partner. We're at the same level and I'm glad it's paying off. I'm just so ecstatic now and I just want to keep it rolling.
Seehra didn't wait long to go after the left-handed Gadbois and built an early lead.
"I knew he was a counter-puncher and people told me he has a wild right hook but I'm taller than him," Seehra said. "I talked to (60kg defending champion Alex Rynn of Calgary) and he told me to just keep that jab and keep shooting that hard right hand and you'll keep catching him and I kept my job going and never let him set, and at the end I was up 11-5.
"It was a shock to everybody but I always train like this, always sparred Kenny like this, and now I'm just bringing it out. It's not big news to me, but it's big news to the naked eye."
Seehra will fight Ayaz Hussein of Montreal for gold tonight.
Seehra raised some questions, even with his Inner City coach Bob Pegues, when he decided to enter the 60kg class and went uncontested at the provincial championships. That cast him into a large pack of 16 fighters at the national tournament, a group that includes Rynn, a Commonwealth Games team member, and Gadbois, a national B-team member. As it turned out, Seehra beat Gadbois, and Rynn went down in defeat Thursday to Hussein.
It's Seehra's goal to win nationals and take the B-team spot away from Gadbois.
"It was unbelievably good for us, everybody is in disbelief," said Pegues. "Jag is getting huge respect.
"Jag scored early and got up by a couple at the end of the first round and never looked back. The first two rounds were highly technical, Gadbois is kind of rough, tough brawler, the kind we used to hate Jag to fight, and Jag handled him perfectly. He kept the ring positioning, scored lots. It was a beautiful fight. We can see that gold medal right now."
The 20-year-old Lally, of Inner City, advanced to the 52kg medal round Thursday with a knockout win over Quebec provincial champion Frederic Laquerre. With Laquerre bleeding profusely, the fight was stopped by the ringside doctor, 45 seconds into the third round.
"Kenny was really mad at the judging, he beat the guy half to death and the score was really close, so Kenny went out in the last round and finished him off," said Pegues. "Kenny was on fire after he saw the score and just destroyed him."
Lally takes on Ahmed Karatella of Ajax, Ont., the Ontario provincial champion, in a 52kg medal match today. The loser of that fight is guaranteed at least a bronze medal and Pegues predicts it won't be Lally.
"We're going to have two Inner City boxers fighting for gold and that's awesome," Pegues said.
Jamie Ward of Vancouver is the only other B.C. team member still fighting in the tournament.
