Marie-Eve Dicaire | “I savor every moment of this adventure”

Coach Samuel Décarie-Drolet pulled out his phone to check. As expected, his protege Marie-Ève ​​Dicaire is well and truly neglected by the bookmakers for her world championship fight against Briton Natasha Jonas on November 12 in Manchester.

Simon Drouin
The Press

The odds are around three to one. At the end of a press briefing a few minutes earlier, the boxer from Saint-Eustache had obviously assured that such a status would not disturb her, quite the contrary.

“For us, it’s so not important,” said Dicaire on Thursday during his last media encounter before leaving for England on Saturday.

The 36-year-old Quebecer will enter the ring first, “out of courtesy” for the local athlete and her two belts, according to promoter Yvon Michel, but she “will come out last,” said her other trainer, Stéphane Harnois.

IBF World Super Welterweight Champion, Dicaire will try to steal the WBC and WBO crowns held by the 38-year-old Briton since this year. A fourth vacant belt, that of the magazine The Ringthe most prestigious in the eyes of Décarie-Drolet, is also at stake.

Dicaire’s (18-1, 1 KO) eyes sparkle when she talks about this occasion. “I’m going to box in the unified world championship in a place where boxing is popular like the Montreal Canadiens are here. […] It’s what I’ve always wanted since I started my career. I appreciate every moment of this adventure. »

The communicator gets fired up when she talks about her last training period. She started it by wondering if she was “too old for this business” to finish it by defying her coaches.

Out “damaged”, still according to Yvon Michel, of his last against the Mexican Cynthia Lozano, in December, Dicaire had time to heal all “his little sores and small wounds” in the last year.

In the spring, she refused an offer of a lesser confrontation offered to her by the promoter. After having multiplied the fights earlier in her career, she feels a “renewed energy” after this unusually long break.

In this sense, she considers herself “much more advantaged” than Tash Jonas (12-2-1, 8 KOs), a left-hander like her who fought on September 3.

“I had time to get bored of boxing, to realize how much I needed it in my life and that I wanted to do this. I have already found myself in the position of Jonas. […] At some point, you fall on autopilot. The moment you have the chance to get bored of your sport, you realize that you want to do this more than anything. For me, it’s priceless. »

Surprises

Dicaire promises “surprises” to Jonas, in whom she senses a certain lightness as the duel approaches.

“Does she think she’s going to a walk in the park ? I think so. That’s really funny. She’s planning her next fights, talking about a fight against [Claressa] Shields. Me, I like to shuffle the cards. No one thought that one day I would get to where I am right now. Ever since I was little, people have told me: “Marie-Ève, it can’t be, Marie-Ève, it’s impossible.” This is where I want to succeed even more. »

The 5’7″ athlete is enjoying a second chance to unify the 154lb titles after her failed attempt against American Shields on March 5, 2021, in Flint, where the WBA crown was also up for grabs. take.

If the event takes place in inhospitable territory, there the comparisons stop, insisted Yvon Michel. In a period of health restrictions linked to COVID-19, Dicaire had traveled to Michigan by car without his entourage.

This time, she will be accompanied by her two coaches, her physical and mental trainers as well as her promoters. And she’s not afraid to be surprised by a hostile environment having experienced it as a spectator during the defeat of her friend Oscar Rivas at the hands of Dillian Whyte, in London, in July 2019.

“This kind of challenge gives me wings. It allows me to go get some fuel because I know I’m going to get booed and people aren’t going to cheer me on. I know she’s gonna hit my gloves and it’s gonna scream. And I know I’m going to put on my best smile because it’s going to take a lot more than that to unsettle me…”

Let the punters take it for granted, she could have added.

Pay attention to emotions

“Confident, excited, feverish, thrilled” : Dicaire released his “dictionary of synonyms” to describe his state of mind less than 10 days before what will perhaps be the most important clash of his career. A few minutes later, his coach Stéphane Harnois assessed that one of the main pitfalls in Manchester will be to get carried away by emotions. “It’s something we’ve always dreamed of boxing in a place like that,” he said before the media training at Gym Sherbatov in Laval. The main interested party claims to have guarded against this unfortunate trend by working with a mental trainer for five years. “When I arrived in the ring, it was often the emotions [qui primaient]. I am an emotional girl, both positively and negatively. If the wires touch, I am not able to listen to the strategy and the instructions. […] I’ve been doing this for five years. I should be made no worse. So it’s a bit of a review of all that. »