Time away from the ring might have been the best thing for Brock Stumpf, a 22-year-old from Elora who competes for Guelph's TNT Boxing and Fitness Academy.
Last weekend, Stumpf captured his first Canadian boxing championship title when he won all three of his matches in the heavyweight class for competitors, weighing 91 kilograms or less.
"If you look at the cards it was pretty much a perfect week," Stumpf said following a training session at the club Thursday.
He started with a 3-0 win over Adam Ayoubi of Montreal, defeated Benjamin Alvarez of Edmonton by technical knockout in his second bout and beat Jhevani Dixon of Brampton 3-0 in the final.
However, it wasn't quite as easy as the scores indicated.
"My first two fights were the two hyped fights of the tournament," he said. "Everyone was cheering. People who didn't miss mine were coming up to me and saying they were coming to my next one. It was just absolute war."
The 6-foot, 1 and a half inch Stumpf won the title in his weight class in his first senior national tournament.
"I've won provincials twice so I qualified for Nationals last year, but I got in a dirt bike accident and fractured my orbital bone so I wasn't able to go," he said. "That was probably the best thing for me because I had to take about three months off just to recover and make sure I didn't have a concussion or whatever. Since then, I haven't missed a beat. I didn't realize how much I wanted it until I couldn't have it. I remember watching Nationals and just being a little emotional."
"It's unfortunate that it took something so severe for him to figure it out, but ever since then it's been impressive," TNT competitive coach Stevie Bailey said. "The last 18 months, no one outside of maybe Sara (Haghighat-Joo), no one has been more dedicated than him."
Stumpf joined the TNT club and started boxing six years ago as he needed something to keep himself occupied.
"I just needed something to do," he said. "I was a little bit of a trouble maker and it was strongly recommended that I get a hobby. It was 'You're not a bad kid, it's just that when you're bored you'll find stupid things to do.'"
Stumpf is currently on probation after getting a conditional discharge last November for an assault charge stemming from an incident in a bar in downtown Guelph.
"It was definitely a mistake," he said. "I definitely don't want to hurt anybody and I don't like hurting anybody, but I couldn't have had a better lesson."
Stumpf has also learned a lot in the ring as he's gone from a brawler with a heavy punch to a boxer who has a hard punch and that paid off with his first national senior championship.
"Now that I've won, Stevie's already getting calls from professionals that want sparring," he said. "As much as it is cool and I am excited, but it' funny. It's like 'Congratulations, you're Canada's target.' You've got to stay humble, keep working, work harder and work a lot harder to maintain."
Stumpf's gold was one of four medals won by TNT boxers at the national championships as bronze medals were won by Emma James in the women's 57 kg. class and Heather McIssac in women's 48 kg. and Haghighat-Joo was awarded silver in women's 54 kg.
"We felt she won the fight comfortably, each round," Bailey said of Haghighat-Joo's final against national team member Erica Adjei of Ottawa. "The whole arena was waiting for the decision and it went to the other girl by split. I've never heard booing like it. It was one of the worst decisions I've seen in this country since I've been here. It was terrible, but it happens in boxing. She barely got touched. She outschooled the girl."
