Wayne Bourque (born 1959) is a Canadian boxer known as the "flurry from Fort McMurray". He has been the North American Native boxing champion three times in the

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

and

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

classes.

Boxing

He was born in 1959 in

Lac La Biche, Alberta Lac La Biche ( ) is a hamlet in Lac La Biche County within northeast Alberta, Canada. It is located approximately northeast of the provincial capital of Edmonton. Previously incorporated as a town, Lac La Biche amalgamated with Lakeland Count ...

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

parents and has four siblings. He was raised and trained in

Fort McMurray Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significant ...

. To protect himself from racist attacks, he learned to

box A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...

. He won his first tournament, the Northwest Pacific

Gold Gloves The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in bo ...

, at the age of 13 in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. His boxing career totaled 130 fights with approximately 109 wins and 21 defeats. Bourque retired from

amateur boxing Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three ...

in 1985 after receiving a knee injury while skiing eighteen days before the Olympic trials. After retirement, Bourque moved to Toronto in 1987 for a fresh start away from partying and drinking beer. Starting off selling cellphones and plumbing, he learned of the 'boxercise' trend and his wife, Carol, encouraged him to seize the moment. In 1994, he became a fitness trainer and is the owner of the

boxercise Boxercise is a high intensity interval training class based on boxing training. It differs from boxing in that boxing is a competitive sport whereas Boxercise includes aspects of boxing training but not sparring or competitive bouts. History The ...

centre Centre Ring. His clients have included many NHL players like Matt Stajan - Calgary Flames, Olympian Marnie McBean and players of St.Michael's Buzzers.He leads a summer camp in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

where participants use boxing exercises to get fit without the physical contact of boxing matches. Wayne even appeared as the corner man in the first fight scene with

Russell Crowe Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spent ten years of his childhood in Australia, and moved there permanently at age twenty one. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maxi ...

, in the movie ''

Cinderella Man ''Cinderella Man'' is a 2005 American biographical sports drama film directed by Ron Howard, titled after the nickname of world heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock and inspired by his life story. The film was produced by Howard, Penn ...

'' (2005). He also trained Crowe for the movie. In 2009, after several years of declining an invitation, he decided to participate in the

Ringside World Championship Ringside may refer to: Sports *Ringside of a boxing ring *Ringside of a wrestling ring *Ringside seating (combat sports), see Ringside (boxing) Film *''Ringside Maisie'', 1941 boxing film * ''Ringside'' (1949 film), American boxing drama film * ...

s. TVO profiled Bourque in their Never Stop Learning series and in celebration of Canada's sesquicentennial, Indigo published a book called The World Needs More Canada. Bourque was selected and featured in the book, as one of the "cultural makers of our land, who inspire us, challenge us and reflect who we are for all the world to see."

Achievements

* 1973, Junior National Champion, 80 lb class * 1974, Junior National Champion, 85 lb class * 1975, Junior National Champion, 90 lb class * 1983, bronze medal at the national championships * 1984, contender to represent Canada at the Olympics * 2009, Ringside World Champion for Masters (age 40 to 50) * Lifetime achievement award at the Regional Aboriginal Recognition Awards * 2012, Wood Buffalo Hall of Fame inductee * 3x North American Native champion * 4x provincial champion * 4x Golden Glove champion

Family

Bourque is married to a woman named Carole and has a son named Brandon who is a talented lacrosse player. His mother Clara Bourque is featured in ''Mark of the MetisL Traditional Knowledge and Stories of the Metis People in Northeastern Alberta'' (2009). Bourque's second cousin, Rene Bourque played professional hockey in the NHL. His playing career included time with the Chicago Blackhawks, Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche. Today, Rene Bourque is playing hockey in Sweden.

References

* Chris Alexander, "Why Didn't I Do It Sooner?" ''National Post'' (Toronto), June 27, 2000. * Curtis Phillips, "Boxercise Guru Reflects on his Home," ''Fort McMurray Today'', March 16, 2002. * Chris Alexander, "In the Ring with Raging Bull." ''National Post'' (Toronto), October 6, 2006.
Wayne Bourque
* "About Wayne Bourque , Wayne Bourque's Centre Ring , Toronto". ''www.centrering.com''. Retrieved 2017-03-23. * "René Bourque". ''Ice Hockey Wiki''. Retrieved 2017-03-23. * Centre Ring Ltd (2015-04-01), ''Wayne Bourque - A Comeback Story'', retrieved 2017-03-23

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bourque, Wayne 1959 births Living people Canadian Métis people Exercise instructors People from Lac La Biche County Sportspeople from Alberta Métis sportspeople Canadian male boxers Welterweight boxers

Boxing

Achievements

Family

See also

References

External links