When 31-year-old Pouyan Abedini stepped into the boxing ring inside the Cloverdale Legion on May 28, it was like stepping into the past.
This was his second match since returning to amateur boxing after nearly a decade-long hiatus, and he felt the butterflies in his stomach. The pressure to perform in front of the Legion’s boxing fans, lazily sipping beer in the warm room, sent waves of nervous energy through him.
He was up against 20-year-old Melvin Teagai, another 195-pound elite novice boxer.
Teagai’s last match took place the weekend before in Nelson against Cranbrook’s Nike Blackmoore, where he knocked Blackmoore down but lost the match based on points. Abedini’s most recent match since his 10-year layoff: April 2, 2016.
Teagai stepped out of the blue corner. Abedini stepped out of the red.
The metal bell clanged and the fight was on. Punches were tight, clean, aggressive. Feet danced as the boxers countered each other near Teagai’s corner.
Then, suddenly, it was over.
“When I heard the bell ring, I looked at my coach and I’m like ‘What? That was it?’,” Abedini said after the match.
The bout at the Cloverdale Legion’s Jim Gallagher Memorial Boxing Show was using two-minute rounds. Abedini, having fought in 51 matches during his career, was used to three-minute rounds.
Nearly all of those fights were before his layoff in 2007.
Abedini started boxing when he was 11, taking on his first fight under the tutelage of Ken McInnis, who is still Abedini’s coach.
“When he was younger, he was a little bit shy, not confident enough,” McInnis said. “I had to guarantee him he was going to win his bout.”
“I really wanted to always win the fight,” Abedini interrupted. “I didn’t want to lose.”
Like any young fighter, he didn’t always win. But he won often enough to make some of the top ranks in Canadian amateur boxing: Abedini was a national boxing champion, a seven-time provincial champion and a silver medalist at the 2003 Canada Games.
He only saw his career getting better as he competed against international boxers in high calibre bouts. Then, at the 2006 nationals, he fractured his nose.
“After that I had a deviated septum, so it was hard to breathe,” Abedini said. “I got that fixed, and just took time off after that.”
Abedini became a personal trainer and boxing coach, starting his own company called BoxerFit in Kitsilano. Then, in 2016, he decided to get back into the sport.
“You just miss that adrenaline, and you miss that rush of going into the ring — that [focus] that you have when you can’t eat, can’t drink alcohol, can’t do this, gotta sleep early,” Abedini said. “It just keeps you on the right path.”
That’s where he was at the end of the second round, sweat beading on his neck and shoulder as he spat into a bucket and McInnis steppd into his corner.
“Stay in the middle,” McInnis said in a low voice. “Don’t go on the ropes.”
Abedini nodded, and another heavy metal clang announced the start of the second round.
“Let that right hand go,” McInnis said, watching as Abedini pulled a combination punch on the tiring Teagai.
“Hands high, keep them high. Get those right hands going.”
It was like being back with a 20-year-old Abedini.
“When you coach somebody as a younger kid, they sort of forget things as they get older, and you have to ram it into them,” McInnis said. “But today he was doing all the things I used to get after him about when he was 14, 15.
“Today, they all sort of clicked in.”
McInnis has watched Abedini progress as a boxer, moving from the shy, uncertain lightweight to a quick-footed heavyweight. When McInnis first heard Abedini would be moving away from competitive boxing in 2007, he was “depressed.”
“But when I look at it now, and I’m looking at some guys that have 130 bouts and they’re not winning. They shouldn’t be in the sport,” McInnis said. “It’s actually better in a way that he had this break.”
“Because I’m fresh too,” Abedini interjected. “I wasn’t taking any punches for the last 10 years.” He mimed punches being thrown at his head.
Now, Abedini finds himself in an unusual spot. Having been away from the sport for so long, he needs to focus on training. But having so many high level matches under his belt can make it difficult to find sparring partners.
During the May 28 match against Victoria’s Teagai, Abedini held back for the first two rounds. In the third, he unleashed, sending punch after punch at Teagai and pushing him into the blue corner.
Because it was an exhibition bout, both boxers were declared the winner. But Abedini isn’t leaving it at that.
“I had to kind of hold back and take it easy,” Abedini said about his match against Teagai. “Against better quality opponents, I would like to test myself again.”
-with files from the Nelson Star