Photo: Denis Germain – In a Quebec-Ontario showdown between the two best from their respective provinces, Steven Butler will face Steve Rolls on March 7th at the Montreal Casino.
Steven Butler is far from home for a second consecutive camp. It’s far, it’s cold, and it’s less glamorous than Vegas, LA, or New York, but somewhere in the North of the USA, the Montrealer hopes to reach the next level. The level he lacked against Murata and Janibek, but also the one he would have regretted not attempting – at least – to achieve when his boxing career becomes nothing but a memory.
“I didn’t want to be the kind of ‘uncle’ who says: ‘I could have done that… if I had done that…’ at every family party. Right now, I’m giving it my all and doing everything because I have no regrets and I never want to have any,” says the athlete who now trains with John Scully, far from the good ol’ Club Champion and Rénald Boisvert, who still supports him back home.
At only 28 years old, ‘Bang Bang’ Butler has been a pro boxer for a decade. His tally is nearing 40 bouts, including 2 world championship fights. The problem is, after two world tours, he’s still waiting for his first gold record. The other issue is that Butler is in boxing, not music, so nobody says time is ticking, but it’s close enough.
“A boxing career is unlike anything else. You have to keep your foot on the gas because you never know when the car will stop,” reflects the young veteran.
In full forces
While the car is pushed to its limits, John Scully awaits him in the pit to improve the very best of his mechanics.
“He’s a guy with experience, a guy who knows his boxing. We know he works with Marc Ramsay in Artur Beterbiev’s corner. But what made me stick was when he said, ‘Steven, you have a lot of strengths, enough to become a world champion. Yes, we’ll work on your weaknesses, but less than your strengths, because I don’t want your weaknesses to become your game plan,'” he recalls.
That must have been the speech of the century.
Instead of extending his vacation at Disney World last August, he asked his wife to drop him off before reaching the north of the border to start training with Scully at this boxing academy that, likes a lot of them, kinda’ looks like an old garage. After two months there, the performance that resulted wasn’t his fanciest, but it got the job done as he returned to victory against Ivan Alvarez.
It’s difficult to judge this performance. The man was coming off a defeat, but also doubt, mourning, and depression that followed. He had come a long way. “From shadow to light,” to quote Tremblay. That night, he defeated Alvarez, but most importantly, his demons.
Just for that, in terms of magic, Scully’s gym has nothing to envy to Disney’s castle.
In terms of boxing, the fight against Rolls will tell us more.
“We’re at war”
That was the premise, because a fight against Rolls means a return to the United States. Once again, even by renting a condo instead of a hotel room, Butler seems as far from the American dream as he is from his loved ones.
“Out of sight, close to the heart,” he keeps in mind.
Because in the middle of the least romantic Valentine’s Day in the world, he is far from his wife and two children. At the opposite of this celebration, he is rather in the sparring stage of his preparation, putting on gloves every week with warm-hearted American hopes, eager to prove themselves, while – for the best – trying to “hit him in the face.”
“Here, sparring is like fights. Guys don’t respect each other, they’re here to hit each other on the chin, if not the face,” he says, transparently.
“But really, it helps to stay stimulated. Without taking anything away from Canada, the fact is that we all know each other: Erik Bazinyan, Christian Mbilli, we wish the best for each other. Whereas here, it’s war and it’s every man for himself.”
Closed doors to your screen
Speaking of a wholly Canadian training session. Butler and Rolls have already sparred together a few times. Without wanting to glorify old stories held behind closed doors, the Quebecois had this to say.
“I would say it was high-level sparring that many would have paid to see… It’s no coincidence that we agreed to a fight,” he says, very aware of the stakes that put them on the same path again, a few years later.
“Since then, we’ve been international and we’ve failed. Now, it’s about who wants to go back the most and who will remain a local boxer,” continues the pride of the Saint-Michel neighborhood, intending to go all the way with a dream that surpasses his next opponent by far.
Between dream and reality, Steve Rolls remains a formidable obstacle. Many doubt whether Steven Butler’s stay in the Oncle Sam lands will suffice to achieve his ambitions. The main interested party, however, doesn’t pay them any mind, preferring to double his gratitude towards those who believe in him. A word to them:
“The best is yet to come. I know you believe it, I believe it, and we’ll make it happen.”
