Niagara Boxing Legend Steven Wilcox
Steven Wilcox, a 2024 inductee into the Niagara Boxing Legends, has a long connection with the St. Catharines Boxing Club.
The 34-year-old boxer from Hamilton, who fought out of the Steeltown Boxing Club, has known Joe Corrigan since 2001 and he was a competitor at one of the first Ray McGibbon Gloves tournaments.
He recently came full circle when he was inducted into the Niagara Boxing Legends along with Ray Napper, Jr., Ryan Baulk, Ryan Rannelli, Daniel Ryan, Scottie Paul and Stephen Ryan during a fight card at the Merritton Community Centre.
“I am honoured and my whole family is honoured, I have known Joe my entire boxing career and I have always told him that he has been so great to me and to a lot of other people,” he said. “I was on the Team Canada junior team and my dad told Joe there was a big tournament coming up in India and he needed to get me some international experience. Joe said, ‘No problem.’ I think that year I went to Ireland with him and then he had a team come down from England. He got me a lot of international experience that even if you were on Team Canada, you weren’t getting.”
Wilcox ended up having an amateur career that lasted for 190 fights, including representing Canada at the Commonwealth Youth Games, before the two-time junior national champion and senior bronze medalist turned pro in 2012.
As a pro, the super lightweight (140 pounds) has a record of 25-4-1, including a seventh-round knockout of Jose Castro Fierros June 1 at the Niagara Falls Convention Centre. During an interview for this story, Wilcox was sporting a black eye.
“I got a head butt in Round 2 or 3. It was a good fight and it felt really good to get back in the ring. It showed a lot of people and most importantly myself that I still got it and I still want to be in there.”
It was his first fight since March 16, 2023 when he lost to Mathieu Germain in Quebec for the IBF Inter-Continental super lightweight crown. Germain came into the fight ranked in the top five in the world.
“It was a good fight but we came up short,” he said.
Wilcox boxed full time until COVID arrived. His wife was having a baby and there was no boxing so he started working for his dad’s industrial mechanics business as a millwright.
“People ask me why I do it. They tell me I have a family and now you have a good job working with your dad. You can still be involved with boxing because we still have a gym too but it’s still in me.
“To be honest, if someone came to me and told me ‘Here’s a million dollars’ I wouldn’t change what I am doing. I would change my work schedule but I would still want to box. I am not ready to hang them up yet,” said the former Canadian and WBA-NABA champion.
