Southern punch

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Kenny Lally plans to do some cooking in the steamy confines of a tropical outdoor boxing ring next week in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the recipes he has in mind won't be very appetizing to his 56-kilogram opponents at the Cheo Aponte Cup tournament.

Every morsel Lally intends to dish out will taste like leather.

"I'll probably have to win four fights and I'm not planning on losing - I'll win that gold medal," said Lally. "Everything's good to go and I'm ready to fight."

The tournament runs for four days, starting Wednesday, with finals on Saturday.

The other countries involved in the tournament are the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Chile and Uruguay. One of the 56kg boxers entered is reigning 52kg Olympic champion Robeisy Ramirez Carrazana of Cuba.

Lally won bronze at the Cheo Aponte Cup in 2011. He expects many of the same fighters he'll see next week will also compete at the Pan Am Games in Toronto in July.

"I'm going to send these guys a message - I'm going to go to their home country and their home climate and win and when they come back to my climate (for the Pan Am Games), they're going to be afraid," said Lally.

"(Ramirez Carrazana) is on fire this year, but whatever. Bring it on. I'm going to have to face him sooner or later. For me, I believe the Pan Ams are the pinnacle, fighting on my home soil in a huge tournament in front of the whole nation. I believe this is my time."

Lally hasn't fought since November at the senior elite national championships in Mississauga, Ont., where he won his sixth Canadian title. His most recent international fight came in October 2013 when he lost in the opening draw at the International Boxing Association world championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

"I'm more mature now and I've seen it all and been through it," Lally said. "(Coach) Bob (Pegues) always told us that boxers peak at 26 or 27. When I was at the nationals, just the way I felt in the ring, overcoming a cut (above his eye). I used to get really nervous and feel rattled in the ring sometimes, but that doesn't happen anymore."

Lally is just ending a seven-week training camp in Prince George, working with Pegues and longtime Inner City Boxing Club sparring partner Jag Seehra. Lally got plenty of sparring at the Team B.C. junior/youth workouts in Kelowna a couple weeks ago.

"I took it back to the basics of what got me here - just hard, hard boxing training," he said. "I've been hitting the bag a lot, doing a lot of drills and a lot of hand pads. I stepped a bit away from strength training until after this tournament, that's when I'll bulk up more. But for this one it's just cardio training, pushing my body to the limits so I know there's no way I can possibly get tired.

"It's all mental now. Physically I'm peaking and my skills are all there, it's just putting it together at the right time."

Lally says he's looking forward to today, when he can let up on the heavy training.

"This is hell week and every day you push your body to the point of failure," Lally said Thursday. "I'm going to be 26 in a few months and my body feels about 52 right now. I'm at the end of camp and I'm pretty sore. After Friday I'll cut it right back for the next four days.

"Once I get in the ring next Wednesday it will be just like a lion coming out of a cage."

When he last fought at the world championships, Lally was noticeably smaller compared to most of the other 56kg fighters who had focused on adding muscle mass in training, then suddenly dropped weight by dehydrating their bodies with exercise just before the weigh-ins. Lally is close to his fight weight right now and won't be taking that approach in Puerto Rico, but Pegues says that's the plan for Pan Am Games.

"This is kind of a test of how strong he is going in at his natural weight," said Pegues. "Following this trip we will be immediately connecting with our strength trainer (Derek Hanson) at Simon Fraser University and we'll add five or six more pounds on him, which will be hugely valuable internationally.

"This is going to be an amazing year for Kenny and he's really cranked up about Pan Am Games. He wants to medal in Canada and he's got a really good shot at making the Olympics. He's as ready as I've ever seen him, just like he was before he went to nationals."

Boxing competition is scheduled for the second week of the Pan Am Games, July 18-25.

Lally was one of six Canadian boxers preselected for the Pan Am team. Seven more Canadian team berths are available for the 10-male, three-female team, based on results at a qualifying tournament in Tijuana, Mexico, in June.

After the Pan Am Games, Lally will travel to Venezuela for the Continental Games, Aug. 15-23, the first of several Olympic team qualifying tournaments. A medal there would qualify Lally for the AIBA world championships in October in Qatar, where he would need to finish in the top 10 to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.