Champion for Charity Chris Mihas has the music, the beat and the sweet science in him
By Jeff Hicks
WATERLOO —
Like a vinyl-spinning, two-fisted sandman, the bongo-smacking deejay will enter the roped arena. His earnest step-into-the-ring song?
For Whom the Bell Tolls. Metallica.
“It’s a song that gets me energized,” said Chris Mihas, a disc jockey for the best part of three decades and one of Mandy Bujold’s 18 Champions for Charity set to make their fund-raising boxing debut on April 12th in The Brawl at Tapestry Hall.
“It pumps me up. It’s very aggressive and intense. That’s what boxing can be too.”
Not Uptown Funk. Not Brown-Eyed Girl. Not even Dancing Queen.
None of his go-to wedding deejay, fill-the-dance-floor ditties for the ages and aged will get the jive-talkin job done this Friday Fight Night in the Gaslight District.
Not even in a deejay booth a Waterloo guy couldn’t escape if he wanted to as a regular Tapestry Hall tune dealer and one-time club scene staple.
Not Bruno Mars. Not Van the Man. Not even ABBA.
After all, this ain’t no wedding party. Wouldn’t matter if it was.
“Somebody’s going to hate Dancing Queen,” said Mihas, the 46-year-old owner-operator of CM Entertainment. speaking from experience as a wedding and all-events deejay. “But the majority of people are going to like it.”
Not every punch is a knockout for everyone’s cauliflower ear. Some land. Some are duds. You throw it out there and move on to the next one.
Like songs on a wedding night, it’s a winning combination that counts.
That’s The Name of the Game. Lights are going to find you. Like a, uh, Super Trouper.
“In that ring, in the spotlight, that’s going to be the dance floor for those three rounds,” Mihas said. “Three rounds. Three songs.”
Maybe Mihas’ opponent on fight night will despise his walk-in introduction to a mix of Metallica and Hemingway. For Mihas, boxing and deejaying are a dynamite matching combination of preparation and big show-time payoff.
“You don’t see the prep work that goes into deejaying, Compiling the playlists from the past. Meeting with the bride and groom. The first dance. The parents dance…” Mihas explained of the similarities. “The preparation for boxing is gruelling. It’s intense. It’s a lot harder than the actual fight. But by the time you step into that ring, you are well-prepared to handle anything that comes your way.”
Mihas, who fought once in a Golden Gloves event in 2016, and the other Champions for Charity have endured months of training to raise $290,000 — and counting — for McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation. His company is an event sponsor.
“We had a tour of McMaster not long ago,” Mihas said. “I learned they have the largest paediatric health division in all of Canada. Ever since the pandemic, youth mental health cases have skyrocketed, they said. That was a real eye-opener.”
His son Oscar, who turns 11 a week after The Brawl at Tapestry Hall, will take the event in and add to his experiential arsenal with his own Tae Kwon Do tournament approaching.
“The timing is perfect,” Mihas said.
Timing is everything for a deejay. And a drummer. And a boxer.
Mihas is all three. A little musical discussion. Add in some percussion, that he picked up as a kid sitting behind brother Nick’s drum kit. And, hopefully on Fight Night, no concussion.
Mamma Mia. There’s a fire within his 45 rotations-per-minute soul.
If he does get a black eye, his wife Natalie, an aesthetician, can fix him up fast.
Then, after all the bouts, he’ll spin some tunes. Probably play the congas or bongos to some spicy Latin tunes from the Gypsy Kings. Or maybe Danza Kuduro.
“When I’m hitting the punching bag, I’ll do some drum patterns like I would on the congas.” Mihas said of his boxing-drumming prowess.
“They go hand-in-hand.”
To support Chris, click here.
