A historic Toronto boxing gym is celebrating after several of its boxers won medals at the Brampton Cup, a tournament held between Jan. 30 and Feb. 2.
Viktoria Penney, 22, was a stand out in the tournament, winning gold in the women’s 80 kilogram weight category.
Penney has trained at Sulley’s Boxing Gym — located near Dundas and Dufferin streets — for over three years and credits the facility’s community for her success.
“This gym is like basically a family inside of a gym,” she told CBC Toronto. “The staff is really supportive, the coaches are fantastic. As fighters, we train together, we work together and not only that, but we’re all friends outside of the gym.”
Penney is one of 22 boxers from Sully’s who fought in the Brampton Cup last weekend — 19 of whom came home with medals.
It’s a big win for the gym, which has a storied history, but has struggled in recent years. Sully’s Boxing Gym first opened for business in 1943. Over the years many iconic boxers would train at the gym, including Muhammad Ali, as well as Canadian legends Lennox Lewis and Donovan “Razor” Ruddock.
Sully’s moved locations a number of times over the decades, but always stayed in the city’s west end. In 2019, the gym had to scramble to find a new home after its landlord opted not to renew the lease. Then, like many small businesses, Sully’s was hit hard by the pandemic.
Sully’s pandemic recovery
“Coming back from COVID, the gym saw a bit of a loss of fighters and the sport in general was kind of hard to come back from,” Penney said.
But the gym’s recent success is a sign that it’s been able to slowly recover, she said.
“Seeing now that our gym is in such a good spot with so many people, we’ve all been working hard for the past three years really to get us to this point. We have new young youth joining the team on the come up. It shows that there is a place for this work and that this gym lives up to the history that’s behind it.”
As modest as Penney is about her own win, Sully’s trainer Rico Mancini is quick to praise her athleticism.
“She’s very focused. She does everything she needs to do. She’s not afraid of hard work. She shows up on time, every time … she’s a pleasure to work with,” Mancini told CBC Toronto.
Penney recently joined Canada’s national boxing team and Mancini’s looking forward to coaching her as she faces new challenges.
“Now it’s a matter of refining her skills, working on a couple of new tactics and strategies,” he said.
As for Penney, she’s ready to take on whatever comes next, including “some international competitions on the horizon.”
She’s also working on moving down a weight category to 75 kilograms and has aspirations to one day fight at the Olympics.
“You never know what happens,” Penney said. “I’m riding the boxing wave wherever it takes me.”
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