KDSS graduate wins national boxing championship

Shane McCarthy has just won the Canadian Boxing Championship in the Elite Cruiser Weight Division for ages 19 and older.

Born and raised in Ripley and Kincardine, the 23-year-old now lives in London and is finishing his degree in mechanical engineering at Western University.

A graduate of Kincardine District Secondary School (now Kincardine District Senior School), he started boxing three years ago.

“I played a lot of team sports but during the COVID-19 pandemic, we couldn’t do that, so I took up boxing,” says McCarthy. At that point, he was completing an internship at Bruce Power and living in Port Elgin with his brother, Shaun.

He worked with Geordie Munn, a boxing instructor in Owen Sound, twice a week at his gym, and began competing in the summer of 2022. Eight months later, he went to a three-day tournament and won all three of his fights.

McCarthy has competed in about 15-20 fights since, and became eligible for the national tournament, held Nov. 19-23, in Sarnia, competing in the Elite 190-pound (85-kilogram) Cruiser Weight division for ages 19 and over.

McCarthy was scheduled to compete in three fights. The first day, he fought a guy from British Columbia who went down after two rounds. Then, in the semi-finals, he fought a guy from Ontario who had defeated him in another fight, and won. Then, in the finals, he fought a guy from Quebec who had taken this tournament, and beat him in three rounds.

When asked how it feels to be a national champion, he says, “I’ve spent a lot of my life devoted to this sport. It’s good to make it happen.”

McCarthy is now on Team Canada and competing in tournaments against other countries, with his eye on making it to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

He continues his boxing practice at Boomerz Boxing Club in London.