Stuart McLellan is heading to Moncton, NB this weekend for his first professional boxing match in about a year.
This Saturday, Nov. 24, McLellan’s match with Chris Aucoin of Brantford, Ont. will be the main event on the six fight card.
“He’s fought all the top contenders in Canada so I’m expecting a tough fight,” McLellan says.
He says Aucoin has more fights under his belt than he does with four wins, 10 losses and two draws, but with his own record of seven wins, three draws and no losses, he is going into Saturday’s fight determined to win.
A win Saturday will put McLellan in contention for the Canadian Professional Boxing Council’s 160 middleweight title in February 2013.
He says the title has remained vacant since he competed for it last year in a fight that was deemed a draw with no clear winner.
“The title was vacant so it stayed vacant, but in my mind and a lot of people’s minds there I won the fight,” McLellan says.
Stuart’s brother, Roberto, and dad, Gary, will be in his corner for this Saturday’s fight, encouraging, coaching and cleaning him up between rounds. The fight is scheduled as an eight-round elimination bout.
“If anyone wants to watch the fight they can watch it on gofightlive.com,” Stuart says. The fight starts at 7 p.m. eastern time, which would be about 3 p.m. Cariboo time.
Stuart is 26, six feet tall and fighting in the 160 pound middleweight class.
Stuart has been boxing for 15 years as of Nov. 10, the past five-and-a-half years professionally. Last year he had fights in Vancouver, Calgary, and Moncton but this year he hasn’t been able to find anyone willing to fight him so he has signed on with a professional promoter, Last Round Boxer, and expects to have at least four fights a year.
Both Stuart and his brother, Roberto, the current Canadian Light Middleweight Champion, are professional boxers who came up through the ranks of the Williams Lake Boxing Club.
“I have fought my whole career out of the Williams Lake Boxing Club,” Stuart says.
He started boxing when he was age 11, trading his hockey skates for the boxing ring.
“Dad was always a fan of boxing so when a gym opened in town we got to quit hockey and baseball and just box,” Stuart says.
These days he is in the gym six days a week and takes one day off to rest.
“You have to have a day of rest, more for your mind than anything,” Stuart says.
He spars with his brother and other contenders in the club about three days a week and trains in other ways the rest of the week —running, chin ups, push ups, heavy and speed bag boxing, shadow boxing and callisthenics.
He says he isn’t into weight lifting because weight training would build too much heavy muscle which would push him into a different weight class.
He says there are 17 weight classes in professional boxing from 105 to 200-plus pounds.
He pretty much eats everything he wants but puts emphasis on getting lots of meat, fruits and vegetables into his diet. He also doesn’t take any supplements.
“I get everything I need from my food,” Stuart says.
Like the great boxer of his time Mohammed Ali said, Stuart likes to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” and hang in for all eight rounds.
In the professional ring he says boxers only wear mouth guards, but no head protection, and while there is the risk of injury he still enjoys the sport.
He says he has had his nose broken three times in the ring, and once when a door flew open into his face.
“I just like to box,” says Stuart, who is also a first year apprentice carpenter with Woodtick Construction.