In what could be her last career boxing fight, Quebecer Marie-Ève Dicaire symbolically chose a Celine Dion song, titled The Power of the Dream, to enter the ring on Saturday in England.
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“When I started professional boxing [en 2015], it’s the tune that I loved and I put it on loop in the gym, told Dicaire, in an interview granted before his departure for Manchester. When my trainer [Stéphane Harnois] happened, it played in the carpet… I wanted to use it as an entrance song, but he didn’t want to. For him, it was not a song that a boxer could use to go to the ring. »
The coach then made a bet with his protege.
“When you’re world champion, you can take it,” he told her.
The power of dreams
Becoming world champion for the first time in December 2018, Dicaire did not ask any questions and continued with a more traditional entrance song in recent years. However, for this major clash of unification planned on enemy soil against the Briton Natasha Jonas, the time has come.
For the record, this famous song by Celine Dion was delivered during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Dicaire was then celebrating its 10th anniversary. Then becoming champion of karate, a discipline not being presented at the Olympics, the Quebecer went to boxing, years later, dreaming of participating in the Olympics.
“The lyrics to that song are super strong,” Dicaire noted. What it says is that the heart will take you far, the work too, but deep down, it’s the dreams that will dictate your journey. It’s kind of what I’m going to experience when I walk to the ring in England. »
Four belts at stake
Victim of a concussion while hoping for a possible participation in the Rio Olympics in 2016, Dicaire was never able to achieve this goal, but she thwarted many predictions during her career in professional boxing. The current IBF super welterweight champion, she will now attempt to leave England with four belts, including the vacant title of Ring Magazine.
“I always told Marie-Ève that the important thing happens in the ring, put Harnois into perspective. What happens between the locker room and the ring, it mustn’t distract her… It’s possible, for example, that it’s not the right song that starts, but it’s not your tune that will make you win. That being said, if she feels good with this song, so much the better. It’s not me who fights, it’s her. »
Exit last…
According to the pre-established order, Dicaire (18-1, 1 K.-O.) will enter the ring first, Saturday evening, in Manchester. As a courtesy, Jonas (12-2-1, 8 K.-O.), who holds the WBC and WBO belts, will have the opportunity to be presented last, at home, as the big star of the evening.
“The important thing is that Marie-Ève will come out last,” said Harnois, with a wink, alluding to a possible victory for the Quebecer.
“I am a little girl from Saint-Eustache and in no way did I imagine myself earning my living through boxing. Even less to go to the final in an amphitheater in Manchester. That’s what it means to me, the power of dreams. And I’ll be honest, it’s also the fact that it’s the song that I had no right to take and that now I have the right, ”concluded the 36-year-old boxer, laughing.