Ready to roll: Chris Boland, GV Boxing Academy trainer Zedda Harrington and Marcus Turner.
When it comes to building a champion boxer there is no more important trait than resilience.
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That ability to keep on throwing punches when adversity hits is what separates the good from the great, and is something all coaches hope to instil in their budding fighters.
But for young Mooroopna duo Chris Boland, 17, and Marcus Turner, 13, they have taken this idea of resilience to new heights in the past month, battling through the floods that engulfed their community to get up for a major fight night in Melbourne this Friday.
With the GV Boxing Academy gym inaccessible due to water damage, the pair has managed to maintain its training habits, taking to the shed of head trainer Zedda Harrington to continue honing its craft.
Now primed for the big stage at Footscray’s Croatian Club, Harrington said he was incredibly proud of how the boys handled themselves through the adversity of the past month.
“The boys have been really good through this whole process, they feed off each other, set the tone for each other and keep each other honest, so with everything that’s been going on it has been great to see them come together and continue working,” Harrington said.
“We lost our gym, it went under during the floods, so it has been very hard to juggle, but their commitment has been extraordinary and to see them take matters into their own hands, as a coach I could not be more proud.”
Beginning his boxing career at the beginning of the year, Boland has quickly established himself as one of the state’s top talents.
Featuring in seven fights, Boland sports a perfect 7-0 record, which includes a memorable Golden Gloves triumph in Brisbane in August.
Rematch: Chris Boland will face Doveton's Riek Chuol for a second time on Friday.
In what is set to be his final bout of 2022, the Mooroopna sensation now embarks on a rematch with Doveton’s Riek Chuol in what Harrington expects to be one of the standout fights on the Boxing Victoria calendar.
“This was such an unbelievable and action-packed fight last time they met, both boys absolutely gave it everything,” he said.
“They are both so evenly matched and are very much carbon copies of each other, but I just feel Chris edges him in speed and his a little better ring smarts.
“After that first fight I feel it will be a packed house down in Melbourne and is another big occasion for Chris to rise to.”
Turner, who also brings an undefeated record into the night, will face arguably the biggest challenge of his career as he battles 15-year-old talent Rahnz Ruiz.
Coming up against a fighter that his two years his senior, Harrington admitted it would be a big ask for his young prodigy, but had full confidence Turner would take it right up to Ruiz.
Young talent: Marcus Turner will put his undefeated record on the line this Friday.
“Marcus is a really disciplined boy, he also won the Golden Gloves in August and this will be his sixth fight, so it will be another great experience for him,” he said.
“He’s just had a fight in Leongatha last month and an hour before he got told his house went under in the floods, he had to weigh up a lot of thoughts and he showed he’s such a tough kid with a great head on his shoulders.
“So even though he’s fighting a 15-year-old and he’ll be the underdog, I know he will attack the fight in the right way and give himself a great shot to win.”
For Harrington and all those involved with GV Boxing Academy, the result of these two fights is almost irrelevant, with the continued growth of Boland and Turner enough to get any boxing fan excited.
“I think it is such an exciting time for boxing in the region and these guys will be names everybody will know for a long time,” Harrington said.
“It is an amazing thrill to be able to train these boys and I cannot wait to see what they achieve going forward.”
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