Lepage-Joanisse dominates on his return

The boxer from Petite-Nation easily won her light heavyweight fight against the American Princess Hairston (2-2-1, 2 KO), obtaining a victory by unanimous decision of the judges (40-36, 40- 36 and 40-36). She gave it her all to end the clash with a knockout .

But Hairston managed to stay upright.

Several left hooks from the 27-year-old right-hander hit the target. Hairston found herself in the cables a few times throughout the four rounds.

“I had mentioned that it was a tough one ,” recalled trainer Stéphane Joanisse, speaking of the boxer from Detroit.

“We knew she was a tough girl. It would have been easy to find a boxer with an 0-2 record. But that was not the goal. We wanted a real test for Vanessa when she returned.”

Lepage-Joanisse was threatened only twice in this fight. She took a hit in the second round.

"A shot that I did not like," admitted his coach .

"I felt it," admitted the athlete from Saint-André-Avellin.

Earlier in the first 30 seconds of the fight, the two pugilists were trading blow for blow.

“It was a bit disheveled at first. Vanessa lacked a bit of fluidity”, recognized Stéphane Joanisse.

But things turned around pretty quickly. Lepage-Joanisse has found her press briefings.

“Obviously there are things that I would have liked to do better. But I can't be harsh with myself. I am very satisfied with this first fight.

Her last in-ring appearance was in August 2017 when she lost a WBC world heavyweight title clash in Mexico. The knockout suffered had left its mark.

Then a series of events pushed the former Canadian champion in the amateur ranks to abandon boxing. At some point, Lepage-Joanisse had hit the 315-pound mark.

At the official weigh-in for her fight, she tipped the scales at 184.4 pounds.

“I would tell you that I was very nostalgic the whole day before the fight. I was proud of myself and my whole journey since my weight loss. I know there are still things to work on, but I have reason to be proud of my performance tonight.”

Dressed in mauve, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse walked to the ring under the music of Carrie Underwood. Specifically the song “ The Champion ”.

We could hear in English the words “ Invincible ”, “ Unbreakable ”, “ Unstoppable ” and “ Unshakeable ”.

The choice was no accident.

“Each word is a bit me,” explained Lepage-Joanisse, whose fight was presented at the curtain raiser of the gala organized by its promoter Eye of the Tiger.

The latter hopes to get back into the ring quickly. It remains to be seen whether it will be in June in Montreal or in September in Gatineau.

“I want to stay active. In a press conference, I said that my medium-term objective is to play a world championship fight again. But at the same time, I want to take it one step at a time. I want to get used to doing more rounds before jumping into a 10-round fight like I did five years ago in Mexico.”