Brian Baines was a quick study in the sport of boxing.
The 58-year-old Port Robinson resident, who will be honoured at the 17th Annual Niagara Boxing Legends Show March 21 at the Merritton Community Centre, got started in the sport when his father, Wally, took him to the Port Dalhousie Boxing Club to train under Jimmy Neill.
“I tried it out and Jimmy told me I had a good jab and I just kept fighting. Three years into it, I won the (intermediate) Canadians in Montreal in 1982,” said the sheet metal foreman for CJ’s Express in Cambridge.
Winning the 139-pound national time when he was 14 would end up being his career highlight.
“I went to a sport awards banquet in Toronto at this big hotel and they had all the national champions in every sport. I didn’t drive at the time and I brought a girl so I had to be driven up there.”
By the time his career ended, he was a four-time provincial champion and three-time silver medalist, including an Ontario senior boxing title in 1986. He travelled across the province boxing and training and even got to spar with Lennox Lewis at a training camp.
“It gave me a lot of self-confidence with stuff like public speaking. It was so rewarding. I played all-star hockey from atom to juvenile and your team winning was great but when you are in the ring and put your hands up, there is not a better feeling in the world. You couldn’t blame anybody if you lost because it was you. If you won, it was on your own.”
He stopped boxing in his late teens.
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