Press release courtesy of Boxing Canada.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Montréal, QC – June 14, 2025 – Boxing Canada is proud to announce a strong performance at the 2025 World Boxing Challenge Cup, held June 10–14 in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, where Canadian athletes brought home five medals, including one gold, two silver, and two bronze.
Joshua Ofori (Men’s 75kg – AB, Marshal Boxing Club) led the Canadian contingent with a gold medal victory in the Men’s 75kg division, defeating Italy’s Rotani Guidi in a commanding 5-0 decision. Ofori’s poise and technical dominance throughout the tournament marked a highlight for Team Canada.
In the Women’s 60kg division, Marie Al-Ahmadieh (QC, The Corner) claimed a silver medal, advancing to the final with strong performances before falling to Brazil’s Rebeca Santos in a 5-0 decision.
Viktoria Penney (Women’s 80kg – ON, Sully’s Boxing Gym) also brought home silver after a tightly contested final match, losing by a narrow 3-2 decision to Mexico’s Citlalli Vanessa Ortiz.
Nickenson Denis (Men’s 80kg – QC, The Corner) reached the final bout in the Men’s 80kg category but came up just short in a close 3-2 decision against Hungary’s Pylyp Akhilov, earning the silver medal.
Canada also secured a bronze medal during the semi-finals on Friday with Mckenzie Wright (Women’s 50kg – ON, Fight Night Boxing Club) who lost a close 3-2 decision to eventual gold medalist Phil Kaivo-Oja of Finland.
“The performances of the entire team were solid. There are always things to work on and we go into a training phase before the World Cup in KAZ where we can make some tactical and technical changes,” said Vincent Auclair, Head Coach of Team Canada.
The World Boxing Challenge Cup is a new level of competition created by World Boxing. The long-term goal is to have the Challenge Cups act as a national team-vs-national team precursor to the World Cup. Athletes can use success at the Challenge-level as validation that they are ready to move up to World Cups. Boxing Canada High Performance Director, Christopher Lindsay, underlined the importance of these developmental opportunities: “Having a dedicated level of competition for Canada’s developing National Team members to hone their international skills will be critical to our 2028 and 2032 success. Canada looks forward to a full series of Challenge events hosted by World Boxing in 2026.”
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For media inquiries, please contact Christopher Lindsay at [email protected]
About Boxing Canada: Boxing Canada is the national sport organization for the sport of Olympic Boxing in Canada. It provides leadership for national programming, teams, and policies in partnership with each province and territory’s sport organization. Thanks to the Government of Canada, Canadian Olympic Committee, Rival Canada, and all our national partners for their support. For more information on Boxing Canada, please visit BoxingCanada.org.
