Williams Lake professional boxer Stuart McLellan was on the receiving end of some world-class training this week.
Two-time Canadian Olympic boxer and former 11th-ranked middleweight on the planet Adam Trupish was in Williams Lake to help McLellan prepare for an upcoming March title fight.
The undefeated McLellan, 27, who won the Canadian Maritime Title in a bout with Francis Lafreniere last September in Halifax, is scheduled to take on Quebec’s John Alejandro Gonzalez — a 19-year-old with a perfect 3-0 record — for the vacant East Versus West middleweight minor title in Moncton, N.B., March 8.
Trupish, 34, who represented Canada at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics as an amateur and has since put together an 11-1 (8 KOs) professional record, arrived in Williams Lake from Edmonton last Thursday and has since been working in and outside the ring with McLellan and other members of the Williams Lake Boxing Club.
The pugilistic friendship began after Trupish invited McLellan and his brother, fellow professional boxer Roberto, to Edmonton last year to help him prepare for what would eventually become a successful North American Title bid.
Now, he said it’s his turn to return the favour.
“I’m excited to be here,” Trupish said Tuesday during a sparring session at the boxing club. “I’m excited for Stu and his fight and he’s got a big year ahead of himself so this is just one of the steps to the utmost goal of wearing the belt around his waist.”
What struck him about the facility and the club, located in the basement of the Western Wood Heat building along Highway 97, was its grassroots feel, which he said reminded him of his hometown club in Windsor, Ont., where his amateur career — comprised of 250 fights spanning around the globe — blossomed.
“I like it here,” he said. “I’m a small-town boy originally so I don’t mind it at all and it’s nice to get out of the city and back to the bare essentials. I’ve always been a firm believer in it’s not where you train, it’s how you train.”
McLellan said the opportunity to work with one of the top fighters in Canada has been a phenomenal experience.
“It’s been excellent,” McLellan said. “To be at home and have one of the top fighters in Canada to work with is just an awesome feeling. We wanted to get some good work in and get some fresh ideas from someone more experienced and just make training camp more fun.”
McLellan, who has a professional record of 9-0-3 (2 KOs) and is the fifth-ranked middleweight in the country, added he’s feeling good heading into his March bout.
“I’m just taking it one step at a time and looking at one fight at a time,” he said. “But I want big fights, and I don’t just want to beat guys, I want to fight the best. Win or lose, I don’t care but I want to fight the best.”
As for Trupish, he’s confident McLellan will continue to improve and said he sees great potential in his friend and training partner.
“He’s got lots of potential because, you know, he hasn’t had a lot of wars and ring rust,” Trupish said. “It takes a lot out of a fighter having fights all the time. Now he’s a bit older — you learn more because you understand the game a lot more but he’s been around for a long time.”
He added the McLellans, whose dad, Gary, coaches the WLBC, are truly a boxing family.
“After hanging out with him and staying at his place for the past week I see him and his family are very knowledgeable about everything to do with boxing,” he said.
“He grew up with boxing gloves on, you know? And it’s awesome for the city to get behind this young guy.”