Kenny Lally's boxing world is getting bigger with every fight.
Although the 20-year-old from Prince George lost his 54-kilogram title fight at the Elite Continental championships 7-0 Friday to Camilio Perez of Puerto Rico, Lally's silver-medal effort in Quito, Ecuador, has done nothing but elevate his national-team status.
"I can't even wrap my head around this right now -- a silver medal at a tournament like this is mind-blowing," said Lally.
"I thank Boxing Canada for giving me this opportunity. I just wanted to prove to them I can fight at this level and this is where I belong and I think I did that (Friday)."
Lally had his hands full against Perez, an experienced fighter on Puerto Rico's A-team, who kept Lally swinging at air almost the entire three-round fight. After a scoreless opening round, Lally was behind 2-0 after two rounds, and had pull out the stops in the final round but was unable to tag Perez.
"This guy was so quick, he was so slippery and I couldn't seem to find my punch," said Lally. "He only had two points on me going into the third round but with this kind of scoring you have to just go out and swing and that's what I did. This guy was really experienced and could slip my punch and come overtop. It was amazing."
See Saturday's Citizen for more
