One more time, for the last time

July 22, 2008

By Robert Mangelsdorf
Maple Ridge News

Mike Heathfield has been down this road before.
The local fighter has come out of self-imposed retirement more times than Michael Jordan and Brent Favre combined, but this time, he swears, is the last time.
When former Olympic boxer Manny Sobral calls and gives you a chance to box in front of 80 million people in 40 countries around the world, you take it, Heathfield says.
Never mind that he has never boxed professionally before.
Or that he is 50 years old.
On September 5 at the Red Robinson Show Theatre in Coquitlam, Heathfield will fight Alberta boxer Joey Saskatchewan, a man nearly half his age, in a heavyweight undercard bout. The night will be televised around the world by Showtime Boxing.
“This one is for all the guys out there that are my age,” says Heathfield. “Just because we’re 50, doesn’t mean we’re dead.”
The 240-pound heavyweight is no stranger to the ring, however, and those who underestimate him have a tendency to end up on their backs.
Last year, at age 49, Heathfield won the Canadian Toughman Championship in Victoria, and then successfully defended his title last July in Cloverdale.
Prior to that, he had a long and successful career as a Muay Thai kickboxer, and has compiled an impressive 55-2 record in the various fighting disciplines he’s competed in.
“But I’m done after this,” he says.
He’s said that before.
He said in 2005, but a kickboxing loss to Andrew Peterson that saw him receive his first-ever 10-count didn’t sit right with him. A re-match was planned, but Peterson walked away from the sport, leaving Heathfield to fight Michael Dowsett instead.
Again, that fight didn’t live up to his expectations.
Heathfield beat Dowsett on a cut, and it wasn’t the full-tilt battle he was thirsting for.
In 2006, Heathfield again came out of retirement to fight at a charity tournament for good friend and promoter Gerry Gionco.
Gionco’s son Kyle was murdered in his New Westminster home on Dec. 23, 2004, after getting involved with the drug trade. Gionco founded the Kyle Demsey Gionco Foundation to help youth get out of the criminal lifestyle by helping them afford martial arts lessons.
Heathfield, whose own son Zach was barely a year old at the time, couldn’t refuse.
Then in 2007, Heathfield had a chance to fight in the Canadian Toughman Championship, held in Victoria.
“It was out of town so the embarrassment wouldn’t be as bad if I lost,” he says.
To the surprise of many at Bear Mountain Arena that night, he won.
“I was absolutely ecstatic,” he says of the win. “We didn’t know what we were getting into.”
But, once again, Heathfield couldn’t stay out of the ring for long. After being called out as a “paper champion” by fighter Jamie Walton, whom Heathfield was training with at the time, the two squared off last July in Cloverdale, with Heathfield successfully defending his title.
“I used that as fuel,” Heathfield says of Walton’s remarks. “He never really respected my abilities as a fighter, but I showed him.”
He went out on a high. Not only did he defend his title, he did it in front of his son Zach for the first time. It was a fitting end to a nearly 20-year fighting career.
Then the phone rang.
“I feel like I’ve lied to the public, and my fans,” Heathfield says of his many retirements, and subsequent comebacks.
But this time is different.
On Sept. 5, Heathfield has a chance to send a message to the world, that will and skill trump age; that being 50 years old doesn’t matter if you have the heart of a young man beating inside of you.
“I don’t want to fight someone I can walk through,” he says of his last fight. “I want to beat someone who can challenge me, or else it doesn’t mean anything.
“And if he’s better a fighter than me, that’s fine. But if it all goes according to plan, I’ll come out on top.”
It’s been said you can take the man out of the fight, but you can’t take the fight out of the man, and that rings true with Heathfield.
Overweight and awkward as a teenager, Heathfield began lifting weights and working out to escape the torment of the bullies he faced growing up in Montréal.
“I was a short little fat kid,” he said.
That difficult to imagine today.
Heathfield’s hulking frame resembles a comic-book character come to life, his massive muscles and large fists course with a barely contained power.
But this mountain of a man was once made to feel a mouse by the hurtful words of his peers, and he has never forgotten it.
“The bully wants to get you alone, to isolate you and torment you,” he says. “And if you let that happen, you’re going to be miserable.”
But Heathfield found camaraderie in the gyms of his home town, and before long the short little fat kid was six-foot-one, and playing for the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL.
A trade sent Heathfield to the B.C. Lions, and he has been a Maple Ridge resident ever since.
Today Heathfield speaks to elementary school children about the pain he endured as a child at the hand of bullies.
“You can see in the crowd by the sad faces who is being bullied,” he says.
Stick with your friends, he tells them. They’ll give you strength when you are at your lowest.
Heathfield credits his friends in the martial arts community with helping him cope with the divorce of his wife and mother of his two children two years ago.
“If I didn’t have my boxing, it would have been been a real tough time for me in my life,” he says.
But he has two reasons why he won’t fight anymore, and their names are Zach and Shannon.
“My focus is going to be on my two beautiful children,” he says. “But I know I got that last fight in me.”
His daughter Shannon, 3, runs to his side, in tears. She fell while playing tag with her brother Zach on the gym’s large, padded sparring mat, and Heathfield takes her by the arm and kisses her boo-boo better.
Her blue eyes light up as she scampers away chasing after her brother, the game of tag back on.
“They’re my world,” he says, watching them play. “They’re my whole life.”