With the Alberta Provincial Boxing Championships right around the corner, defending champions and twin brothers – Lester and Lowie Cudillo are busy getting ready to rumble.

After taking home the championship title in their respective weight classes last year, the Cudillo twins are ready to defend their provincial championships on home turf this time.

Lowie and Lester will face off against the best boxers in Alberta on April 12th and 13th at Red Deer’s Westerner Park’s Harvest Centre for the provincial championships.

The Red Deer & District Boxing Club has opened the event to the public and invites the community to support their local athletes by attending the title fights.

Lester will be fighting for the 118 lb. open title with a career record of 11 wins and one loss. His brother Lowie will be fighting in the 130 lb. open youth title with a career record of 13 wins and three losses.

The twins’ coach at the Red Deer & District Boxing Club, Dennis Ejack explained how, “We’ve been working for over a year to prepare them to defend their titles.

“Even though they both won provincials last year, they weren’t old enough to attend nationals, this year they will if they win.”

The 16-year-old, Grade 10 Notre Dame High School students have only been boxing with an actual club for two years. However, the dynamic duo explained that they’ve been sparring with one another since they could walk.

“We started boxing when we were kids mostly in the form of punching each other,” said Lowie. “Our dad told us we used to spar a lot when we were younger so he bought us boxing gloves and then we started boxing each other.”

Lester added by saying, “We never went to a gym or a club though, we just street boxed with each other and the neighbourhood kids.”

Although Ejack is the boy’s coach at the club their father Leo assists with coaching as well. “Leo has shown me videos of the boys when they were seven years old sparring in the kitchen,” said Ejack.

“He is a huge advantage to the boys as he works with them at home in their basement and backyard to help them get better when they aren’t at the club.”

Lester and Lowie couldn’t agree more that they owe much of their success not only to their coach but to their father as well for always supporting and encouraging them. “It’s definitely an advantage for us, because other boxers don’t get to have their dads as a coach or have a dad who knows about boxing as much as he does,” said Lester, with Lowie adding, “He’s like our own home trainer.”

Although the twins have been sparring with one another for many years, it wasn’t until they moved from the Philippines to Red Deer with their family six years ago that they began to take boxing seriously.

“Before we started with the boxing club we were training in Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing),” said Lowie, with Lester adding, “But we weren’t getting enough sparring in so we switched to boxing full time.”

While the twins share a love of boxing, going forward they believe their futures look a little different from one another.

Lester says he hopes to take boxing to an Olympic level if they win provincials and nationals, however he does not wish to go pro and make it his career. He hopes to one day to study a trade and perhaps work as an electrician or a mechanic.

Lowie on the other hand, with the encouragement of his father and coach, hopes to continue his career to a professional boxing level.

The twins, their father and their coach all feel they have a strong chance of winning at the provincial championships and they hope to be able to make it to nationals this year.

“If you saw their trophy case at home you’d be jealous,” said Ejack. “If you look at boxing, the two most important things to win are of course the Golden Gloves Tournament, which they’ve done – and to be able to represent Alberta on a national scale which they are hoping to do.”

The Red Deer & District Boxing Club hopes to encourage Central Albertans to come down and bring their families to watch the high caliber event. Bouts begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday with 10 back-to-back matches and begin again at 7 p.m. with eight more bouts.

The finals for the provincial tournament will be held Sunday beginning at noon.

Entrance fees are set for $10 per entrance or $25 for a weekend pass.

For more information on ticket prices and times, contact Dennis Ejack at the Red Deer & District Boxing Club by calling 403-342-3846.

jswan@reddeerexpress.com