Niagara Boxing Legend Jessie Wilcox
Jessie Wilcox can thank the St. Catharines Boxing Club for his induction into the Niagara Boxing Legends at the 17th Annual Niagara Boxing Legends Show Friday at the Merritton Community Centre.
The 33-year-old Hamilton native credits the international experience he received fighting on St. Catharines’ boxing cards at home and abroad for developing the skills he required to become a three-year member of Canada’s senior national team.
Making the national team was quite the accomplishment considering the Steeltown Boxing Club member lost his first 20 fights.
“When I was 15, I went away with Joe (St. Catharines Boxing Club coach Corrigan) to Scotland. I lost to a kid who was really good and then Joe brought the same kid to Canada and I beat him. It gave me that start to winning. I saw these guys from all these other countries who were on their national teams and I’m hanging with them. I’m winning or I am coming close to winning. I wouldn’t have got experience like that from any other coach or club in Ontario.”
Wilcox is honoured to be named a Niagara boxing legend.
“Even Joe doing this for people, for me it is like another huge victory. All of them guys means a lot to me. Every time I see them at the gym I get a huge smile on my face.”
His career highlight as an amateur fighter was competing at the Pan Am qualifiers in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Panama.
“I remember each one and I lost one fight at each of those tournaments.”
He lost his first fight in the first qualifier and then won his first two fights at each of the next two qualifiers before losing.
“I watched myself progress and when I came back to Canada, I didn’t lose a fight the whole year.”
When his amateur career ended, Wilcox turned pro and accumulated a record of 16-0-3. His career-defining moment came in 2018 when he captured the Canadian Professional Boxing Council international welterweight championship over Juan Armando Garcia at the Ancaster Fairgrounds.
“The guy had gone the distance against some really good fighters and done well on the score cards or recorded the victory. I trained super hard because I knew the title was on the line and I finished him in the first two minutes.”
The night was also a life-altering moment for Wilcox. At the after-party, he ended up meeting his future wife, Sandra.
“A couple of words were exchange here and there and now we have a baby and a house,” he said, with a laugh.
Wilcox works as a millwright and hasn’t fought since November 2022. He was scheduled to fight in September 2024 but was unable to compete because he broke his wrist while sparring.
He stresses he is not yet retired from boxing.
“I’m not saying that I am done yet and I still train all the time. There’s not much left but I am going to have at least another fight just to say good bye. Then I am going to enjoy my life as a dad and a millwright and own a business one day.”
Wilcox was also a talented runner — he placed 15th at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association cross country championships while representing Mohawk— but boxing was his favourite sport.
“I wasn’t an athlete at all when I was younger and didn’t care for sports. I was into chess club and everything.”
His dad, Robert Wilcox, put him into the sport and it became his passion.
“It just went crazy from there and I fell in love with the fact that there was nobody else to blame but yourself when you are in that ring. And the fact that you are an individual athlete but you also have the biggest team behind you and everyone behinds you actually supports you,” he said. “Sometimes a kid on a hockey team doesn’t like you but if you are in the ring and someone is on your team, they are on your team and they like you. They want you to win.”
Also being inducted this Friday are Baby Joe Mesi, Bruce Greenlaw, Bill Williams, Sonny Pascuzzi, Brian Baines and Gerry Ryan.
Tickets for the show are $20 in advance and $25 at the door with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. and the fighting starting at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, VIP tables and sponsorship opportunities, call 905-988-1244.
Former heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney will be in attendance at the fights.
