Justine Honsinger | The Female Fist | Talkin’ Fight

Watch The Female Fist with @ScarlettDelgadoBoxer and @JustineHonsinger. In 2018 – 51kg Canadian silver medallist of
2017- Brampton cup champion, bronze gloves champion, silver gloves champion, Esker all female box cup Ireland champion, Imperium cup Quebec champion all at 51kg.

Watch more on YouTube at or talkinfight.com/live

#GetMoving​ #Boxing​ #FemaleBoxers​ #FemaleFighters​ #BoxingOntario​ #BoxingCanada​ #YouthBoxing​ #TeamOntario​ #TeamCanada​ #Sarnia​ @ScarlettDelgado #thefemalefist​ #boxingtalkshow​ #talkinfight

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Transcribed:

Joining us on the seventh episode of the female fist, i have a wonderful guest with us today.

We have a great resume for her.

In 2018, she was a silver medalist at the canadian championships 2017 leading up to the canadian championship.

She was the brampton cup champion.

The bronze gloves champion esker cup champion in ireland, imperium cup champion in quebec, like damn.

This girl was just all over the place that year she was just hitting all the har marks.

So please welcome justine hostinger did i say that right han singer? Hey sorry! Please welcome justine singer hi justine, i’m doing good.

How are you i’m well so justine here her and i used to be teammates during our competitive years.

We’Ve had a couple fights together: we’ve cheered each other on we’ve traveled to ireland for the esker cup championship together.

So it’s really nice to reconnect with you and share this with you um.

I haven’t seen you for a little bit.

I haven’t seen yeah so yeah.

I know what was going on.

Can you let everybody else know yeah so um? Since i went to nationals in uh 2018, my first national i went to where i got my silver medal um it was.

It was a lot for me leading up so that, like you said in 2017, i was just busy busy um.

So in 2018 i went to nationals.

I also graduated i’m from college.

So now i’m a social service worker in sarnia um, and we also decided me and nolan that we wanted to have another little one um.

So that’s when i took a step back from boxing and now we have our little region and now just getting back into the swing of things.

Now i’ve seen tons of pictures of her she’s a beautiful little girl, and we congratulate both you and nolan who to, as i remember as well as a competitor himself.

So now i’ve been seeing you’re kind of like posting a lot of workout videos you’re, you know getting your groove on.

I see a lot of fitness postings and whatnot.

So to my understanding, you want to come back into the sport.

Yes, so i have been doing a lot of working on myself, especially during the pandemic.

I think is really important, and in doing so i definitely found my confidence in boxing again and definitely want to give it another crack at it.

I think um right now.

My heart is really with coaching um, so if things align – and i end up getting back into the ring – we’ll see that we’ll see how the cards fall in place, everything all works out and you know boxing everybody.

You know when we talk about box and it’s always like it’s a strong passion for a lot of people.

Well, obviously, right it takes a lot just to step in that ring just to even show up that in you is such a journey itself.

So for you, where did that journey begin? Where were you like? Okay? This is a sport that i want to do, because i understand that you and i both have a very similar background.

Yes um, so i first started wrestling when i was in high school that definitely brought it like my more competitive, um, passionate athlete, and i realized how much i liked independent sports.

Although it is a team sport just having confidence in yourself and knowing that, if you work hard and dedicate your time that um it will pay off from the end, so i think that just transferred over when i went into a boxing gym, it was like.

Oh wow, i could throw hands.

This is fun, this is fun and that’s when i met um, chuck evans, so he’s also nolan’s dad.

So it’s just a family affair and he was a nine-time national champion and he just saw something in me and he met with my parents and he was um.

Let me know if i wanted to take it serious, it’s definitely something that we could start doing and i was just like wow like he thinks, i’m good so from there it just kicked off um.

I had a little step back.

I did have my daughter um in between there, so i did have her when i was younger.

So after having maya is when i started again and then came to the journey of the national championships in 2018.

, and that’s amazing, like i mean i remember, maya, taking all those like pictures with you she’s, like your number one supporter, i bet that’s the coolest thing For her to go to these shows and be like my mommy’s fighting and my dad yeah, that’s a pretty great environment to build for a kid.

It is really awesome, and everyone always says you know her confidence she’s a little firecracker and um.

She doesn’t see girls in sport loss, then it’s something that was just always engraved in her that we are equal um and she has such amazing support like support around her.

Her grandpa was all for female athletes, so it’s just amazing.

She has such an amazing, like support group around her, it’s a great foundation because she’s never going to have this idea in her head.

Like oh, can i do that or you know having to question that it’s already been normalized to her because she’s, like nobody, can say anything to her because she’ll say like my mom didn’t and my dad did it like.

So you know that’s the greatest thing that you give that’s the best gift that you probably will ever give her.

Is that inner confidence, knowing that she could do whatever she wants, and that’s beautiful so, like you started it? How old were you when you first stepped into the boxing gym um? So when i first met chuck at lansing sinclair, i was 16 and then i did one-year training with him and then that’s when i had maya.

So at 17 i found out.

I was gon na have maya very young um, so she came when i was 18 and then it was um, so she came in 2012.

I finished wrestling after i had maya.

I still continued wrestling as well as finishing my last year of high school um.

So i got to finish up my last uh wrestling season and then it was 2013.

I started to get um back into the boxing ring and then 2015 actually switched over to the blue water boxing club um and that’s when my career really started to kick off.

Yeah, absolutely i remember because, like we were talking about 2017, everybody was buzzing like you were all over the place and it was great to even because especially just more opportunities for us, because even the first year like because we’re the same age, i believe right, like You’Re, 26 years, yeah, i’m sorry turning 25.

, i’m when you’re older.

I think okay, well, whatever we’re around the same downtown, because there’s like a lot more tournaments opening up nowadays for females, because when we first started, they were so limited and even like you know, when i talked to mandy or when i talked to even caitlin, because She had us run a head start.

A lot of stuff was like even separate rings like this ring was specifically for females.

This ring was, for men, there’s been so much progress in such a short amount of time that the opportunities for us are just endless so that that’s a great idea and not sorry, not idea.

I think that’s a great thing that you’re doing right now is to get yourself back just involved with the sport and then potentially competing again.

That’S amazing good for you.

I love hearing that what have you been doing like during mccovin and stuff like that? How has that been um managing because i, like i said i saw your post you’ve been back in the fitness and you’ve been doing the boxing.

So how has that been for you during this time um? So it’s actually been a saving grace um, especially just coming off having regained, so it was a lot just having reagan and then boom lockdown.

You know gyms are kind of um my home, so it was definitely different to try and alter that mindset for a bit.

I just wasn’t working out the gyms weren’t open um.

I wasn’t in a really good place and then it kind of i don’t know.

I just started to do little bits at a time my confidence came back um and then, when gyms were able to open again i was at the point where i was ready to come back and i started doing um some coaching stuff.

So that’s when i got really intrigued more with coaching and we did some programs in our community for the native friendship center with our youth here.

So that was amazing to be able to pass on my knowledge to them and then just working with um.

I’M a social worker, and so i work at the women’s interval home so we’re working on creating a um like a zoom class.

I will be doing for a program for the women at this shelter too.

It’S called get moving um, so i will be doing a boxing segment for the women at the shelter and with the pandemic and the rise in domestic violence.

It’S just.

How could i not pass on my knowledge – and you know the strength and confidence of boxing into our community? So of course that’s beautiful.

That’S a wonderful thing that you’re doing you’re, bringing something that’s so valuable to people that inner strength to people that really are craving something right.

Now.

That’S awesome good for you.

So you’ve already started this yeah, that’s awesome! What’S it called again, it’s called um, so it’s called the program’s called get moving.

It’S through um, the women’s interval home here in sarnia, so it’s a just a class that they put out for pretty much anyone and that wants to be involved with it.

You don’t have to be staying in shelter, but it’s um to build confidence and different nutrition tricks like that coping strategies.

So well, that’s great! So now that you have this get moving, i suppose that when everything starts to open up, would you be bringing those classes to your gym kind of thing or like going some shelters yeah so right now everything is of course virtual um.

So it’s just in the my first time doing it um with the shelter, but we have discussed hopefully in the future, even with um, some of the youth that stay at the shelter or not in shelter who just um want to come work out with us.

Um that would be able to um do it more in the boxing club, so they can actually come and check it out.

Different environments – and you know, hit the bags and all that fun stuff.

Of course, just to be there right just to be out of the house or just out empowering absolutely that’s really exciting, so this is like um.

So this is something that is basically you’re, gearing more towards like to invest more your time into, and then you want to as well coach right like competitors and whatnot, that’s cool yeah.

Do you have like a plan, for i mean it’s hard to have a plan right now with an uncertain team revolving around, but i mean okay, so, let’s just say, hypothetically okay, gyms open up completely at full capacity in the next three months: okay, just throwing it Out there three months, you have this opportunity now, where you can do things inside the gym, you can do things at the shelter you can go and coach people now at competitions.

Where do you see yourself starting and where do you like plan a goal? From that point um, i definitely see myself focusing on our youth at the blue water boxing club, my daughter’s just nine years old now and she’s, getting like gaining um more of an interest in competing.

Finally, before she just would come for fun, so it’s so exciting to see uh the future generation of females getting exciting about boxing.

So my heart is always with the youth of our community and develop the future generation of athletes so and then, obviously in doing so, i’m sure i will be doing workouts with them, and i love working with the woman at the blue water boxing club too.

We have nicole there she’s awesome.

I love helping her anytime.

I can so pretty much just passing on my knowledge.

Do you know it’s? Is that so important? Absolutely! The key word that you said was future generations, because they are our future.

They are the product that we’re giving them all that stuff right now, that’s great so like if, if that’s the case right you’re going to be spending a lot of this time, coaching and investing and probably spending a lot of time with maya if she really wants To like take this to the next step, do you see yourself doing let’s say like about here about there maybe entering a tournament again um? It would definitely be um based on um, my fitness level, i’m definitely in um.

Just in the midst of balancing my life and family and boxing in my career um, as you know, i’m just with boxing a lot of us in boxing it’s a thousand or nothing, usually exactly yeah.

For me, finding the balance right now is the most important and whether i fight or not, is kind of on the back burner got you gotcha yeah, we’ll see what happens when it happens, kind of thing, but i’m a little bit obsessed when i’m sure something it’s Like they say right when the gloves come on, they never come off.

It’S there for life, it’s in bread in our hearts, and i understand that completely so.

Okay, that’s amazing, and now you have these two little ones.

You’Ve got this wonderful, like group going on called, get moving right or sorry get moving.

Yes, and now you have this whole plan working in the gyms you’re, balancing family life.

This is like incredible and it’s a lot of responsibility on one young, beautiful girl.

So how are you like managing this? How are you organizing, like the a busy, mom and athlete yeah um, so i definitely take a lot of time.

I take a lot of time for myself.

I think that’s really important.

I’M fortunate enough um during these times that i am just working part-time um, so i get to be home with my girls during the week and because boxing to me is the family affair.

Um.

Of course, i don’t feel like i’m missing out when i am at the gym with them, so maya’s always welcome to come with us and then regan will visit with her grandma.

So it’s just perfect right now.

It’S a perfect balance, we’ll see how it goes.

Yeah, absolutely that’s a blessing right, thank god that you have that dynamic because imagine having to juggle this if it was so separate, so divided yeah that was so difficult but, like you seem to have like a great game plan and you seem to really have a Lot of support around you.

Yes, we do yeah, that’s amazing, and now, like these girls, that you see um that you’re doing these this program with.

Do you find that they’re taking that time to kind of share with you like how boxing is impacting their mental health? During the covet era, because i know that with coven it’s getting hard on, everybody, like you mentioned, there’s a lot of rise in domestic violence.

There’S a lot of mental illnesses on the rise just because of the isolation lack of support, or so many things are going on right.

So have you noticed a change with like bringing boxing to these girls lives um, so i actually haven’t done the the first class.

Yet so i actually haven’t had any feedback on it yet so we’re just marched in march 9th will be the first group that i actually run with that.

But for our we did a youth group with um the friendship center um, the native friendship center.

Here in sarania, and it was awesome during the pandemic um when we did open, we were able to have um 10 social distance with masks all that fun stuff.

You know, but just being able to have those kids go up there like their parents were messaging me.

Just um saying, like their kids, were so interested in it and it took their mind off of the fact that they’re in a pandemic they’re working out at home, shadowboxing at home, so it just brings the light to such a dark.

I just time like a gym is something that a lot of us just need.

Even if you don’t know you need it yeah, absolutely! That’S, like you know, to give them like some kind of something to look forward to as well.

That’S awesome because you don’t you know, we don’t really need equipment.

Really, that’s the beauty about right, really, neat! That’S! What’S so amazing about it, so it’s so so basic, but so challenging at the same time.

Yeah! Well, do you have like any other updates that you’d like to share with everybody um? I can’t really think of any really updates for myself, mostly just that our gyms are open again and we’re just hoping to get our athletes in there and training and hoping that we can get them competing anytime soon.

So that’s pretty much it for us yeah.

I get it like it’s, it’s so uncertain right now, it’s it’s it’s everything is everybody doesn’t know.

You know we talk to everybody in the boxing community, like oh we’re, getting excited for this right.

It’S like yeah, but we’ll see.

That seems sorry.

Don’T want to hold our breath yeah because we keep telling our athletes that the most important thing that we keep telling the kids is, how you take the time and train now is what’s going to make a difference in the future, if you’re, if you have a Heart of a warrior that you will shine no matter what exactly that’s a golden line to say to them.

I bet they love that that’s true too.

That’S a beautiful so like as well, even with this whole covet thing going on we’re all uncertain.

You know where we’re hoping to have some.

You know activity going on in the boxing community, hopefully like a nationals or something like that to my understanding, they’re supposed to have at nationals like, i think they have to like, based on the not this upcoming olympic year.

But the following olympic year, or something like that and you said that you have like your little one right, that she’s thinking about competing.

So let’s say things open up like you know, by the end of the year or something would you want her to jump in? Like what do you think about that, her being so yeah? Definitely um so she’s, just at the point right now, um like gaining more confidence and we’re hoping to have her, obviously being able to actually spar so first we have to.

Hopefully, you know there’s still so little, so we don’t want them to be too nervous, but thankfully she is so young in the safety procedures that you know boxing ontario boxing canada have for our youth um.

That’S pretty confident she could probably get right.

That’S awesome yeah because they have a great program for the youth.

It’S true and i think that they like they really take care of the little ones i’m not going to lie.

I get so like when i see them they’re like they’re, so small and like their little heads like that’s, not my favorite thing to watch.

I won’t sit there because i get a flat i’m like i can’t i couldn’t imagine as a mom kudos to you.

You definitely have to take your mom hat off for the time being, yeah yeah, because even like i mean your dad right when your dad watches you.

I remember i met your dad when you guys came down to uh mississauga such a great guy, like i actually like.

I actually miss your dad because he was really nice.

He was like he just loved watching everyone and yeah and he’s just good time there since their smiles.

You know he encouraged everybody, so nice positivity just right there.

Even you know, i couldn’t imagine what he went through when he saw you first wrestle when you were young and then like watching you go in the ring to get hit.

You know like how did he handle that he’s? Actually so amazing, because we’re most people who are afraid he’s the one: that’s like no, like you get in there, everyone always laughs.

My dad would always get kicked off the wrestling match because he’d be screaming at me to you better, not be giving up those points.

So my dad learned from an early stage that he could not be a coach to me.

He definitely would get kicked out of the ring.

So often i could hear her in the background.

I’M just like.

Oh no, oh no yeah! You got one fight in the ring and then you have another get out of the ring yeah.

He definitely had no fear.

He had no fear.

I think he wanted me to get punched.

Sometimes yeah, yeah i’ll, see you later.

When you go fight, then we’ll talk.

[ Laughter ], i get it, i get it.

I like, i just figured you know like my dad he’s, always been like when he’s there in the ring.

I guess because he’s been coaching people in boxing he’s he can easily kind of like take it off, but yeah my first match my dad was kind of like okay like okay.

I didn’t really hear him.

He wasn’t really that loud.

He was just like.

I guess in coach mode i said, that’s great, that’s awesome, but i figure it’s because he’s a dad.

I think that, like as a mom like yeah, i don’t know i don’t know like do you have anything for that? I don’t i’m just gon na hope for the best.

I do know that um, you know she has her coach tom and her papa chaksa coach there too.

So if it comes down to it, i just will not go.

I just know that’s what she wants.

Then.

Then i’ll just have to suck it up.

Well, i think that that’s great that your daughter now wants to go and, like you know, you’re fully supporting like yeah.

You know she’s nine she’s ten.

She wants to do it.

I’M gon na get her ready to do it, that’s great well, this is amazing, and i’m really happy to hear about this – get moving movement that you’re doing for like uh the for the because you’re a social worker.

As you told me, yes, yes, so i’m a social service worker and um, i’m a domestic violence case worker with our women’s shelter, the women’s interval home from here in sarnia.

So i’m looking to do more collaboration with them involved in involving our boxing club for um.

Specifically, women and young girls – that’s fantastic! That’S fantastic you’re, doing great things and you’re really using the gift that you have with boxing for great opportunities and i’m sure a lot of women look up to you.

I look up to you for doing so, because you give a lot of girls hope that are in really really really hard situations, and that is life-changing for a lot of women.

So, honestly, all of that, like medal of honor for you good for you.

Thank you for sharing that with us.

Do you have anything else to tell everybody um? No, i just hope to see everyone soon.

I’M so excited um.

Just to see everyone.

I want to see you all compete and kick some butts.

Trust me i’ll be really happy when we can finally all get together again, really hoping for that day soon, [ Laughter ].

Thank you.

So much can you put your hips up for me awesome.

Thank you, justine.

Thank you for joining us stay tuned for next week.

Episode of the female fist,