After a decisive win in her first bout at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, NOTL fighter Mckenzie Wright lost a unanimous decision Tuesday to a boxer from China in the round of 16.
Wright, fighting from the red corner, was behind from the start, losing each round 10-9 on all five judges’ cards.
Her second-round opponent in the 51-kilogram class, Xinyu Qi, was relentless and managed to land several key punches in the three-round match.
Wright, 35, is the reigning Canadian champion in her weight class and has been training in hopes of qualifying to represent Canada in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
This was Wright’s first time fighting at the world championships, which is just one of the steps along the road toward her Olympic goal.
Last Saturday, Wright made short work of Yara Alamri, of Saudi Arabia, winning a unanimous decision.
Wright has fought for Canada at numerous tournaments over the past three years.
A former kickboxer, the St. Davids resident returned to the ring in 2023 after a five-year break and has made her mark on the Canadian boxing scene, dominating her weight class.
She narrowly missed qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics and feels she has what it takes to represent her country in Los Angeles in 2028.
She won a bronze medal in June at the World Boxing Challenge in the Czech Republic and trains almost daily in her Olympic quest.
“With the way things ended last (Olympics) cycle, with it being that close so many times, I can’t leave it like that. I have to right those wrongs,” Wright told The Lake Report prior to the world championships.
“I think it would be unfair to myself to leave it like that.”
She views her previous attempts to qualify for the Olympics as building years, allowing her to improve, get stronger and mature.
“The way I look at it, too, is OK, I’m older, but that means I have more experience. So, with the five-year break that was five years less damage to my body,” Wright said.
“I always say, ‘Yeah, I’m 35 but I’m only 30 in boxing years’ ” thanks to her years away from the sport.
After initially training with coach Jesse Sallows of City Boxing Club in Niagara Falls, she is now under the tutelage of Faisal Ahmadi — “Coach Sal” — from Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Wright also travels to Montreal a couple of times each month to train under Canada’s national team coaches.
Looking ahead, there’s the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Scotland on the horizon and then Olympic qualification starts in 2027 with the Pan American Games in Peru.
