By Troy Gillard (Twitter: @Troy_Gillard)

Long-time boxing coach steps into the ring for Golden Gloves tournament

May 17, 2018 | 5:02 PM

He’s been in the corner of many of Red Deer’s top fighters for over a decade. Now he’s stepping into the ring to prove that he, too, has that it takes to succeed.

Roman Rzepowski will be competing in the Alberta Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament, May 26-27 at Westerner Park.

Rzepowski has been with the Red Deer Boxing Club for nearly 18 years. He’s stayed involved with the sport despite his parents being not so thrilled about it.

“They came from Europe where they saw a different side of the sport than I have, so they did their best to keep me away from ever participating in it,” Rzepowski admitted. “So I’ve kind of gone behind their backs to stay in [boxing].”

Rzepowski has only a handful of boxing matches on his record. His fourth bout came four years ago before finally fighting again just a couple of weeks ago.

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He came into 2018 weighing about 200 pounds, making for some light-hearted jabs from some of the fighters he trains,. But that wasn’t what motivated him to dust off his gloves.

“What actually sparked it was working with the Dopamain Gym program designed to help people with Parkinson’s,” he explained. “They go in to this program fighting a really tough opponent, one I certainly never want to fight, and I figure if they’re doing this three times a week I should be able to step in the ring at least once, put on a show for these guys. Win or lose, I’ll leave everything in the ring.”

Rzepowski currently weighs 167 pounds and plans to be at 165 for next weekend’s event to fight in the middleweight division. One of his boxing pupils, Cam O’Connell is confident he’s ready to win.

“He is sparring with me regularly and I can speak to how far he has come in the last couple months in his preparation,” O’Connell says. “He has always had the knowledge to be a top boxer in the province and has used that knowledge to train me and now that he is applying it to himself its incredible how fast he is advancing.”

The 31-year-old Rzepowski says he has no expectations for next weekend, saying only that he’ll see what happens if he does well.  

“Boxing is no joke. Even at this level, with amateur boxing, I don’t expect it to be an easy bout. These guys are tough, they practice and chances are I’ll go into the ring with a younger guy who has more stamina. But I’m going to go in there smart. I know the sport and have seen the body language of a lot of athletes.”

Rzepowski will find out next Saturday who his opponent will be that day. He’s preparing himself to fight two bouts at the tournament.

The Golden Gloves tournament, an official test event for the 2019 Canada Winter Games, takes place at the Stockmens Pavilion at Westerner Park. Tickets can be purchased by calling Colin at 403-396-2062.