Champion for Charity Nicole Colasimone would take a thousand-thousand hits to help make sure Mac is there should her son Jack need the children’s hospital
By Jeff Hicks
KITCHENER —
You don’t think mothers belong in the boxing ring?
Nicole Colasimone begs to differ.
“If I can have a baby cut out of me while I’m awake, I think I can do this,” said Colasimone, who gave birth by Caesarean section to her son Jack 15 months ago.
Colasimone is ready to fight like a mother— with a combination of tough-love style and hard-punching panache.
On April 12th, she’ll throw fists in The Brawl at Tapestry Hall in Cambridge as one of Mandy Bujold’s 18 community leaders and Champions for Charity, 6 women and 12 men making their sanctioned boxing debut to raise funds for McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Maybe the fashion aficionado and national marketing manager for HanStone Quartz Canada will wear her favourite pair of hot pink stilettos as the Kitchener resident climbs through the ropes.
Yes, the patent-leather, 7-inch heels are signed by French designer Christian Louboutin himself. Colasimone met Louboutin when she worked in the highfalutin world of fashion.
The Burlington-raised Colasimone, for many years a competitive horseback rider who took her beloved horse Timber to the Royal Winter Fair, has never worn these pumped-up pumps before. Certainly not while mucking out stalls and stacking hay bales like she did at a Milton horse farm while growing up.
Luxury can be uncomfortable. Jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers are her comfortable, at-home style.
Along with Jack, Colasimone has husband Jonathan and 5-year-old stepdaughter Blake in her corner for staunch support as she prepares for her bucket-list fight.
Still, the girl who has loved horses since she was little heard the neigh-sayers.
“A lot of people were very surprised when I told them I wanted to do this,” she said.
“Generally speaking, I think people struggle with women in combat sports. I faced a lot of criticism. People were saying, ‘Oh my gosh, why do you want to get punched in the face? You’re going to get your nose broken.’ ”
So why do it? Is it because boxing has the same sense of danger Colasimone once faced while jumping a 1,200-pound horse over a four-foot fence? It’s more than that.
“Because I want to,” said Colasimone emphatically, like a mother on a mission.
“It’s also for such an amazing cause. As a mother, I couldn’t imagine what families with sick children are going through. I would take a million punches if it meant my son would be healthy. Life can change on a dime and you never know when you or someone you love might need medical care or treatment. We are so very lucky to have hospitals like McMaster in our backyard.”
So a million punches is the ante. A quarter-million dollars is the fundraising goal.
For extra support and advice on her first bout, Colasimone turns to Bujold herself.
Bujold, a mother of two young girls and Gender Equity Advocate for the Grand Valley Construction Association, will forever be known as the Mother of All Fighting Mothers.
After giving birth to first daughter Kate Olympia, Bujold returned to training for her second Olympics.
But Five Rings bureaucrats tried to use Covid considerations — arbitrarily changing the qualification period to when Bujold was unable to fight due to pregnancy — to keep Bujold from fighting at the delayed Tokyo Games. Bujold and her team cried low blow.
She took the International Olympic Committee to court and won the right to fight.
The IOC will never again be allowed to treat motherhood like an inconvenient injury.
“She’s such an inspiration,” Colasimone said of Bujold.
“I hear stories like that and it makes me proud to be a woman and have people like Mandy fighting for women’s rights.”
To Support Nicole and make a donation to McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation – Click HERE
