More than a fight night

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

Despite the blood spraying from a cut above his right eye, boxer Lev Jackson looked like he might win the fight against Francis Codilla when he knocked Codilla down. Unfortunately, Codilla would prevail at the Imperial on Saturday, Nov. 2. But, at the risk of sounding cliché, everyone was a winner that night, as the proceeds from the event went to helping Intersections Media Opportunities for Youth Society, which offers “workshops to youth facing multiple barriers to employment, while fostering emerging talent.”

“I didn’t feel it in the ring,” Jackson said about the gash that looked large and tender when he sat down with the Independent at the end of the night. Codilla is a tricky person to fight, explained Jackson, because “he’s left-handed, so we have to train opposite for this guy, who’s very good, I’m going to have to give him props for that. But he threw a right hand, left hand and then, he has a pretty big forehead, he led with his forehead.... I just felt a sting in my eye.... I was still boxing, it just stung, and then I get back to the corner, and my coach, he says, ‘You feel fine?’ I go, ‘Yah.’ He goes, ‘I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty damn bad.’ And I said, ‘That’s fine.’ Each round, we kept just holding it, and we kept putting the towel on it because this doctor ... we didn’t want him stopping [the fight] because we wanted every chance we could to win this.”

When Jackson admitted after the fourth of five two-minute rounds that he couldn’t see anything, his coach wanted to stop the match, but Jackson insisted on finishing. Nonetheless, Jackson admitted, “You saw, the guy got the better of me today” – but not without making it clear that it won’t be the last time he’ll be meeting Codilla in the ring.

Fight Night at the Imperial featured six bouts leading up to the main event: Jackson, representing Eastside Boxing Club, versus Codilla of Contenders Boxing, the evening’s presenters. Just that morning, Eastside was a casualty in a fire still being investigated, but which took out both the gym and the restaurant below it.

“Normally, you want to sleep in as much as you can before a fight,” said Jackson. “I woke up about 8 to go to the bathroom and then I quickly checked my Facebook ... I couldn’t believe it.” He drove from his home in Richmond to the gym, which is on Commercial Drive, to see the damage and retrieve his equipment. The fire “was the only thing I was thinking about all night until ... me and my friend Abdul [Fasel], who was also on tonight, we just said, we’ll worry about that tomorrow, tonight we have to worry about this.” Fasel won his fight against Contenders’ Justin Chang in a two-one split decision.

Jackson and Fasel both train at Eastside, and Jackson said about the fire, “This is very unfortunate because we’ve been doing all this hard work to get the youth off the streets and into the gym. We have a plan with the city that anyone who gets referred from social workers out of troubled youth, and native kids on the Eastside, they get free service at our gym. We coach them for free.

“That’s my pride and joy, is getting to coach these people,” continued the boxer, who works as a freelance journalist, writing for the Province and other publications. “Right now, we have a fundraiser website ... it has pictures of the fire and whatnot, and you can donate. I just love them from the bottom of my heart and I’d want everyone to donate and get this gym up [and running] as soon as we can because, if not, the longer it goes away, the longer the kids are getting back into the habit of getting back on the street again.”

Among his achievements in amateur boxing, Jackson is the current World Boxing Council Canadian champion, a title he gained this past September at the first-ever WBC Canadian Amateur Championships, which took place in Langley.

“The Canadian title was nice,” said Jackson about that win. “It would have been nice to get the B.C. with it, but things happen, and this kid hasn’t seen the last of me,” referring again to Codilla.

Determined but conscious of the need to care for himself, Jackson said, looking to the future, “We knew this would be the last [fight] of the year. We wanted to end it on a good note, get that nice, shiny belt, but unfortunately.... We’re going to take the rest of the year off and, I hate to say it, but I think it’s going to be a long road back because if you come back too soon from a cut, it’s just going to open every fight.”

In the meantime, there is other work to be done. Eastside reportedly did not have insurance when the fire struck and David Schuck, who runs the club on a volunteer basis, and who Jackson considers a mentor, now has to rebuild after only just being saved from closing last year (see “Stepping into the ring, Jewish Independent, July 26, 2013). Donations can be made by e-mailing [email protected] or visiting apronsforgloves.com. There is a fundraiser planned for Nov. 10 at the Bottleneck bar on Granville Street.

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