Gignac punches way into wall of fame
Niagara Falls 2023 Sports Wall of Famer Donny Gignac received an early introduction to the sport of boxing.
“It started with my father, watching boxing when I was very, very young. He gave me a little set of boxing gloves and then we found a gym, the Niagara Falls Boxing Club,” the 51-year-old Niagara Falls native said last Sunday after the induction ceremony at the Gale Centre. “Three weeks later I was in my first fight for an Ontario championship.”
It was a rapid start for Gignac, who was 13 at the time, but he wasn’t a complete novice.
“I did a little bit of fighting around the neighbourhood and stuff like that. That was how it kind of was and from there I stuck with it.”
The owner/operator truck driver went on to have an impressive career which included: two Ontario titles; losing by split decision to international hall of famer Arturo Gatti at the Canadian intermediate championships; losing a hard-fought decision to world junior champion Nelson Machado from Cuba while boxing for the Shamrock Boxing Club; capturing a senior national featherweight title in 1993 by winning three matches; representing Canada at several international championships; and, compiling a pro record of 2-0 before retiring due to tendon damage in his arms.
It was a labour of love.
“It was the one-on-one aspect, the individualism of it and the competitiveness.”
The highlight of his career was winning the senior national featherweight title in Prince Edward Island.
“I beat two Olympians, they gave me best boxer of the tournament for the Canadian championships and that was the pinnacle for me.”
The low point was when he injured his arms training in the gym.
“I was hitting a bag that was just like hitting cement and I felt both my arms were just buzzing and tingling and painful. I knew I had done something wrong and ever since then my arms haven’t been the same,” he said. “I won the championships going through a lot of physio to get me through and I just powered through it. Eventually it was just too much. That’s why I retired. I couldn’t punch the way I wanted to. The pain was just there and I couldn’t get it out of my mind.”
After he retired from the sport, the lessons he learned from boxing resonated in his life.
“Boxing makes you humble because you don’t win every fight and the fights that you lose — maybe you thought you won or you thought you deserved to lose — that lesson you learn is that life it not easy or fair,” he said. “That is something that sticks with you. When things don’t go your way in the future, you know how to deal with it because of boxing. A lot of times you don’t have anyone to blame but yourself so you have to deal with those problems that come from day-to-day living. It has helped me tremendously and every single day there is something that I take a lesson from boxing and put it towards how I deal with something.”
He is honoured to be inducted into the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame.
“Wow. The energy in that room was just unbelievable. It was hard to get up there and all of a sudden my stomach tightened up. It was ‘OK. I just have to get through this’ and I got through it. I know I thanked everybody I wanted to thank and kept it short. I just thought it was amazing and I was also so happy for the others. It was a brotherhood in there.”
BPSN is looking for a Niagara Falls business or individual to sponsor our continued coverage of the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame. Please email bpuchalski@cogeco.ca for more information.
