Recently retired MMA fighter Tim Chemelli is ending his short hiatus on March 11 and stepping back into the ring to make his professional boxing debut.
“It is something I have always wanted to try to do, so I better try it before I get too old,” said Chemelli, after six rounds of sparing with fellow boxers at Bonnyville's KA Boxing club on March 2.
Over the course of the past four months the Cold Lake resident and 33-year-old heavyweight has been training in Bonnyville with coaches Ray Kahanyshyn, Ray Dumais and Bruce Kahanyshyn. The longtime coaches, who helped develop current Canadian welterweight champion Rob Nichols, have a solid base to work with as the six-foot-two, 225-pound Chemelli comes with eight years of mixed martial arts experience.
“He works hard, he wants to learn and he is a pleasure to work with,” said Ray Kahanyshyn.
The Cold Lake fighter compiled a 10-6 record over the course of his MMA career, which concluded with a tough loss to Edmonton's Jared McComb at the King of the Cage Mach 3 event on June 12, 2015 at the Cold Lake Energy Centre. McComb dropped Chemelli to the ground before finishing him off with a rear-naked choke just over two minutes into the bout.
“I like throwing hands but my ground game isn't the greatest,” said Chemelli. “With boxing I get to feature my hands and not worry about the take down.”
Chemelli is a southpaw – a boxer who leads with his right hand and possesses a dominant left hand – and with the help of his coaches has developed a strong left knockout punch.
“He likes the straight left,” said Dumais, who has been trying to get Chemelli to work the weapon into a combo of punches.
“Those straight lefts are going to be how he wins a fight,” said Kahanyshyn.
Working on his hands, footwork and strategy have been the main aspects of Chemelli's training to date as he prepares to face the more experienced Stan Surmacz-Ahumada at KO Boxing's Retribution event.
Standing at six-foot-four, 250-pounds, the Edmonton native will have a slight size advantage to go along with his experience.
“He has a lot more experience than me but that doesn't really matter,” said Chemelli. “I have a great bunch of coaches here. He is going to know within the first 20 seconds that he is in a fight.”
Surmacz-Ahumada went 20-6 as an amateur boxer before making the jump to the professional circuit in September of 2015. He is undefeated as a pro going 3-0 with three knockouts, including dropping his last opponent John Dubois on Dec. 4, 2015.
“He is tall, he is a stand up fighter and he likes to keep his hands low,” said Kahanyshyn. “We are going to want Tim to counter by coming over the top.”
As for Chemelli his game plan is simple, use his devastating left hand as a weapon and go for the knockout.
“I was always told I have heavy hands. My straight left is good for me,” said Chemelli. “My primary downfall is that I get caught into brawling every once in a while. I have to learn little more technique and not just try to throw those big punches, but throw them in bunches.”
Chemelli and Surmacz-Ahumada are one of eight fights on the March 11 card. The bouts will start at 7: 15 p.m. at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton.
