The Punisher:
A Nickname that Fits
Kelly (The Punisher) Page has a great
nickname. All fighters need a great
nickname.
However, far too many fighters have
nicknames that don’t make any sense. I
knew a guy called “The Real Deal” once
who probably should have been called
“The Real Punching Bag.”
Page is different from that guy. He
can fight. He can dish out punishment.
Last month in Saskatoon, he
pounded the beejeezus out of a
Saskatchewan fighter named Matthew
Dumais, but ended up with a majority
draw. He’s now 1-0-1 but his coach Ken
Brown just laughed.
“He was robbed,” Brown said. “He
beat the snot out of that kid. There was
blood everywhere and it wasn’t Kelly’s.”
Of course, then there was Page’s
first bout as a professional, back on
April 30, 2015, during John Vernaus’
High Stakes Havoc at the Club Regent
Events Centre, Page beat Dia Grant
of Kelowna, B.C. via TKO – with a
bodyshot.
“It was unbelievable,” said his coach,
former Olympian, Kent Brown. “He hit
the guy with a body-shot and knocked
him to the canvas. The guy was out.
With a body-shot. That’s the kind of
punch Kelly has.”
It was quite an auspicious debut
for the 28-year-old Winnipeg
middleweight who grew up in
Elmwood and went to Gordon Bell
High School. Oh yeah, did I forget to
point out that his body-shot TKO took
place in his first professional fight?
“Yeah, that was my first pro fight,”
Page said with a wide smile. “I had
about 90 amateur fights in 12 years. In
Punishment from the punisher
22 / sportslife
fact, I filled up a Blue Book, which has
about 100 weigh-ins in it, but I didn’t
get to fight all of them, so in the end, I
think I had 90-plus fights.”
There was little doubt that Page was
prepared for his first professional fight.
“Since the first day I was in the gym,
that’s what I wanted to do. I took the
advice I got from people around me to
wait a bit, so that’s what I decided I’d
do. I was thinking about trying to get a
position on the National Team to go to
the Olympics, but that didn’t happen
for me.
“But I had the experience and I
wasn’t going to let it go to waste. I’m
28, which some people might think is
a little bit older, but in boxing it’s not
your age so much as your fitness and
the number of fights you’ve been in.
Sure, maybe if I was 35, I’d be over the
edge, but right now, at 28, I think I have
a good 10 y X\