Back in the ring: Pro-am boxing card ready to go after lengthy pandemic layoff

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Dennis Page’s boxing ring is ready to get bounced and sweated on again, after the longest of long counts during a pandemic layoff.

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Page, a Saskatoon boxing trainer and promoter who takes his own ring where it’s needed, is staging the ‘We’re Back! Pro-Am Card’ Saturday at Dakota Dunes Resort.

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It’s been a trying time for Saskatchewan boxing, he says, and he wants to change that.

“It’s like doing it for the first time, all over again. It really is,” Page said Friday. “When we did the very first boxing card a thousand years ago, there were no (competitive) boxers in Saskatchewan. We’re in the same position again: There are no boxers in Saskatchewan. The one thing that’s better is there’s more boxing gyms, so the future looks brighter for professional boxing in Saskatchewan.

“We were right there on the cusp (before COVID-19). We had weathered some storms, and we had just set up an agreement to do some long-term things at the casino. Some of the boxers we had, they were right there, ready to move into several things. I had a couple of boxers who had gone to nationals that were ready to turn pro. We had a lot of things ready to move … and then the pandemic hit. Bang. All things change.”

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Page says a lot of pro and competitive amateur boxers retired during the pandemic, which left nothing to work with in Saskatoon during the short term. Saturday’s pro-am card is made up of boxers outside the province, with 10 amateur and five professional bouts slated to go off.

“Right now, there are no (local) boxers that we can bring in the ring,” Page said. “We tried for months, talking to different people, talking to some of the boxers that have been around for a while. They’ve hung up their gloves. But now, in Saskatchewan, we have over 20 different amateur boxing clubs so the future is looking brighter.”

The amateur bouts begin at 4 p.m. on Saturday, and the professional fights at 7 p.m. Page says the long-term goal is to stage more boxing cards at the Dakota Dunes Resort, and that this weekend’s event could help determine where the idea goes in the future.

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Tickets can be purchased online at eventbright.ca or at the door.

“It’s a learning and a growth thing for all of us,” Page says of holding his event in a new venue, after a long layoff — a card, he says, that’s been a long time coming.

kemitchell@postmedia.com

twitter.com/kmitchsp

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