TORONTO – Karl “the Razor” Hess moved into the Boxing Ontario Open Class ranking with a gold medal performance at the Golden Gloves tournament in Don Valley last weekend.
The Six Nations boxer continues to gather experience and ring-savvy as he moves from the Novice class to the Open where the rounds are three minutes, rather than two, the fighters no longer wear head gear, and the competition is at a much higher level.
Hess’ ring boss, Jackie Armour of Brantford’s Black-Eye Boxing Club, was pleased with his fighter’s showing against Tom Harburn of Goderich last Friday at the Golden Gloves. Harburn is a fighter Hess has faced before and he knew how to beat him.
“Karl went to the body and worked on the inside throughout all three rounds,” said Armour.
The Razor took the unanimous decision, which sent him to the Gold Medal match. He was up against a fighter from the Stockyards Boxing Club but he was overweight at the weigh-ins and Hess took the Gold in a walk-over.
Hess is now 10-1, the only loss Armour is still upset about thinking his fighter got burned in that loss.
Armour now, with an Open Class boxer in Hess, has a much broader opponent pool to guide the Razor through this phase of his career. The next step up is to the professional ranks.
Armour has worked with Hess for a number of years and believes he’s got what it takes to go pro.
“It’s just going to be a matter of if he really wants to do what it’s going to take to go there,” he says of his fighter.
Hess will debut as an Open Ranked fighter Dec. 4, at the Cabbagetown Boxing Club in Toronto.
