Thunder Innis has said it many times. He wants to be the greatest.
Step by step, punch by punch, the 17-year-old member of Inner City Boxing PG is working toward his goal. A little more than two years into his competitive career, he’s at the beginning of a long road, one that has already thrown some obstacles in his way, and will continue to do so.
But, he’s committed to doing everything in his power to make his dreams inside the ring come true.
“You know what they say, that you learn more from your losses than your wins, and it’s definitely 100 per cent true,” said Innis, a proud member of the Key First Nation in Saskatchewan. “My motivation is a lot higher. I’m looking forward to trying to get better every single day, and I feel like I am getting better every single day. I feel good about it.”
Innis finds himself in this mindset after the Boxing Canada national championships last month in Calgary. He had one bout at nationals, and it ended in the second defeat of his career. In fact, with a loss to up-and-coming Canadian star Porter Hansen in February, Innis has now dropped back-to-back decisions after eight consecutive victories.
Obstacles.
At nationals, Innis squared off against Quebec’s Josue Kouie in the under-19 80-kilogram division. Kouie entered the quarterfinal fight as a two-time Canadian champion and, after he slipped past Innis, he cruised the rest of the way through the tournament for a third national title.
“He ended up dominating everyone else,” Innis said. “That was tough on the mind – almost beat him, and he goes on to beat everyone unanimously. It was a bad thing, but it’s also a good thing. I’m in my second year coming into my third, and I’ve matched a gold medalist, and I’ll just keep going.”
Early in their fight, as Innis was moving forward on the attack, Kouie caught him with a straight left hand to the chin. The punch wobbled Innis momentarily and resulted in an eight-count from the referee. But, Innis regrouped and finished the round well. Then, in the second, he came out and returned the favour to Kouie – an eight-count that put the bout back on even terms.
“I came in, one, two, and then I shifted off and got onto the weak side angle a bit and threw a straight right onto his chin, caught him off balance,” Innis said. “He wobbled a little bit, the ref gave him an eight-count.”
The third round could have gone either way, and the judges awarded it to Kouie.
“In my personal opinion, I thought I won the third round, and I thought I did enough to win the fight,” Innis said. “He definitely landed more clean shots than me, and there were more shots where I had my head going back but I thought I had the better of him a little bit.”
Even though Innis had just the one fight at nationals, he was awarded a bronze medal based on a bye to the quarterfinals and a victory by default when his opponent for bronze couldn’t make it to the ring because of an injury.
Bronze wasn’t the plan, but Innis will take it because it’s a reward for everything he’s done up until now as a boxer.
“There’s two sides to it,” he said. “In one way, I don’t feel like I deserved it, and then there’s the other side where I feel like I should have gotten a silver. On my side of the bracket, I definitely got the harder side, and I did fight the gold-medalist in my first fight.
“One of the cool things about fighting all these other opponents – especially if it’s a hard fight – I always try and see what they did well against me and develop it into my own game.”
At Inner City Boxing, and with Team B.C., Innis is coached by Kenny Lally and Jag Seehra. Both men made multiple national championship appearances during their own careers and, between them, won numerous medals, including seven gold for Lally, and one silver, four bronze for Seehra. But, like Innis is experiencing now, both had to find their way at that level as part of their growth as boxers.
Lally attended his first nationals in 2004 in St. Catharines, Ont., when he was 14 years old. He won his first fight against a more experienced opponent but then lost his second handily.
“He was a veteran of 50 fights, and I got beat all three rounds,” Lally said. “It was a heck of an experience, my first time seeing that level of a fighter and being right in front of it. I took everything I learned from there, and the following year Prince George was granted the nationals, and that’s where I won my first national title.”
Seehra made his national debut in that Prince George event when he was 15 years old.
“I lost it,” he said of his opening match. “I had 12 fights, and the guy that I fought had like 60 fights, so being in the ring against somebody with that much experience was tough. For me, it was just knowing that I was very green, very young, so I knew that I had to get more fights and train a little bit different.
“Without my losses, I wouldn’t have turned into the same fighter,” Seehra added. “It’s just that mindset of knowing that you’ve got more inside. So you just keep showing up and keep trying and trying, and getting there and getting there.”
Lally and Seehra both got back into the gym after their first taste of national-calibre competition, and that’s what Innis is doing now as he builds toward his next bout, likely in September in the Lower Mainland.
His coaches have every confidence in him, both in the near and distant future.
“Thunder is a different kid,” Seehra said. “Like Kenny was talented, don’t get me wrong, but this kid is doing things that we wouldn’t even have imagined doing at his age. He’s a special fighter.”
