Although it’s a cliché, there’s one expression that perfectly describes the year Kim Clavel has just had: “Nothing happens for nothing.” The boxer is convinced that it’s thanks to her loss to Evelin Bermudez that she met the man who is now her life partner. And that she created a “beautiful balance” in life.
“If this defeat with Bermudez made me meet the man of my life, it’s a victory,” Clavel said on the phone.
This introduction deserves a little context, we agree.
A little less than a year ago, on October 10, 2023, Kim Clavel suffered her second career setback. A world championship fight against Evelin Bermudez, which ended in a split decision. The post-fight press conference had been tumultuous; her promoter, Yvon Michel, had loudly criticized the decision of one of the judges.
In the weeks that followed, Clavel took some time for herself. For the first time in a long time, she allowed herself to spend more time in her hometown of Lanaudière. There, she saw friends again and did a lot of activities. She took her mind off things, basically.
It was during the birthday of one of her friends’ daughter that she found herself chatting with Dominic, “a cowboy” who worked for 20 years at the Saint-Tite Western Festival.
They discovered affinities.
He retired as a bullfighter, he became a rodeo analyst. He was talking to me about his retirement and I, at that time, was very into boxing, with what I had just experienced with Bermudez. We had so many great conversations, we understood each other in our own world.
Kim Clavel, in interview with The Press
“If I had won, I probably would never have met him. […] Right now, I’m pretty sure he’s the man of my life, the father of my future children. I really feel it.”
A “beautiful balance”
For the past six years, Clavel has been “closing herself off to distractions,” she explains. Never in her professional boxing career had she had a partner. For once, she opened the door and allowed herself to do something other than think about her sport. “I was like a dog that you let out of the cage and that runs after the balls,” she imagines.
Between her boyfriend, her few shifts as a nursing assistant, horse riding – one of her great passions –, the outdoor activities she indulges in and boxing, Clavel finds a “nice balance”. However, she still has to learn to manage it well.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Kim Clavel’s next fight is scheduled for November 14.
“I want to do everything! I want to live because I’m passionate about everything. But now, I’ve felt for five or six weeks that the training volume has increased. In the little moments to rest, I’m like a Labrador and I want to do all sorts of things.”
For the Breast Cancer Foundation
Speaking of activities, Clavel is scheduled to take part in the Montreal Beneva Marathon this weekend. She is also one of its ambassadors. The boxer, who will be running the 10 km distance, has decided to run for the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation in honour of her two good friends, boxers Martine Vallières-Bisson and Odile Letellier.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Martine Vallières-Bisson (purple belt) during her fight against Emma Gongora, in September 2022
“Odile, it must have been three or four years since she had run; after her remission, she was diagnosed with bone cancer. She went back to chemo and radiotherapy, but it’s for life. She has a little 4-year-old boy.”
Letellier will not be able to take part in the race as planned because she recently suffered an attack of appendicitis.
Life is really tough on her, it’s really tough. But she’s going to have her bib, she’s going to be there with us at the starting line.
Kim Clavel
Martine Vallières-Bisson, for her part, “is in remission, everything is fine, she has started training again”. Her participation in the event “has given her a little boost, a goal”.
Read the article “Martine Vallières-Bisson: at the Championship of Life”
This weekend, Clavel won’t be thinking about the outcome or the time. She’ll be thinking about her friends and all those who are fighting breast cancer. “I’m like, ‘We’re going through this together, one mile at a time.’”
“I want real paying opportunities”
Clavel’s next fight, her third of the year – she won the first two – is scheduled for November 14.
At 34, the boxer has the same goal she has always had: to be world champion. She sees herself getting her next opportunity in this regard “in the first quarter of 2025.”
It is also not impossible that she will box at 105 lbs rather than 108 lbs, as is currently the case.
“I need goals, to be stimulated, to be challenged. If I’m not offered anything interesting, I’m not going to continue boxing for the sake of boxing,” she says. “I don’t want to push the machine. At my age, I want real, profitable opportunities, opportunities that stimulate me enormously.”
Clavel wants to build a future for herself. If boxing still occupies an important place in her life, she now has a balance that she intends to maintain.
“For now, I am healthy, I am in a good mood, I have good morale, I have passion. […] One thing is for sure, I don’t want to fight until I’m 40. One day, I would like to have a family.”
“The opportunities that will come soon will shape my future in boxing.”