
It was a successful weekend for the Red Wolf Boxing Club as a trio of boxers made the journey to Medicine Hat, Alberta for a Silver Gloves Boxing tournament.
Red Wolf sent three boxers to the tournament including brothers Ayden and Devon Masuskapoe along with Aurora Isbister.
Bradock Koch, the head coach for Red Wolf Boxing Club, says all three boxers had solid performances.
“It was a very positive experience. There were 86 bouts over the weekend and 30 were canceled. Our guys did really well and they conducted themselves really well.”
Isbister and Devon Masuskapoe would both lose their fights to the eventual Silver Gloves champions. For Ayden Masuskapoe, the weekend was a victorious one winning both of his fights.
Koch says Ayden has shown tremendous growth since he started working with him about a year ago.
“He’s undefeated, 5-0 now. He’s one of six Masuskapoe brothers. Tough boys, always scrapping and training together. He may be the best, most talented of the brothers. He’s very solid and really adjusted well. He’s teachable, you can’t buy that. He was overwhelmed in the first round of his last fight. He won the second round handily and the third round was just a war. I thought he did enough to win and so did the judges.”
With his final bout going to a judge’s decision, Koch says having a fight go down to the wire will be massive for Ayden’s development as a boxer.
“Up to now he’s pretty much had his way. He’s a talented kid and very good at what he does and he works hard. He had his way until that last fight and he was pushed to the limit so he understands now how hard he has to work because there’s some kids out there that are just as tough as he is.”
Ayden says the final bout took a lot of mental toughness for him to get through.
“(After) all the will I had to put out there I was exhausted and sore. About round three, I was like, ‘I can’t go on, but I gotta go further’. In the middle of the fight. I was like, ‘I’m gonna win this fight’. I went in and out and in, then he caught me a couple of times, I caught him, and that’s where I started pushing through.”
Ayden, who turns 18 in April, is the youngest of six brothers from Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation. He has been boxing for nearly 10 years and gives a lot of credit to his older brothers for showing him the ropes and helping him be successful early in his boxing career.
“Everyone taught me everything. They taught me technique, power. My brother Ian showed me everything. I started when I was eight and up to this point, I got here because (of him) and I’m really thankful he did that pushing me through to this sport.”