By Travis Longman
Never in Delphine Gehl’s wildest dreams could she have imagined stepping into a boxing ring and competing in a match. The 50-year-old real estate broker from Esterhazy is the mother of Zach Gehl, the current Dream FC Featherweight Champion. Delphine, drawing inspiration from her son, decided to give the combat sport a try.
Gehl competed in a charity boxing match for the Valhalla Combat Sports against 48-year-old Adele Morrow. She began training back in September, after encouragement from Zach as well as husband Ryan, Delphine wanted to boldly go where no (or very few) people have gone before! “I started training for the fight on September 19th,” Gehl says. “I did calisthenics and a little bit of lifting weights every morning. I trained boxing in Yorkton at Yorkton Martial Arts Training Centre on Monday and Wednesday evenings and sparred on Friday nights.”
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to combat sports is cutting down weight. “The fight was booked at 135 pounds.” Gehl mentions “I was 136 pounds and my opponent; Adele Morrow had said she was 125 pounds. Our weights needed to be within 10 pounds of each other for the fight to happen on December 17th.”
There were sacrifices to be made and Gehl was more than willing to try and meet the challenges. “For diet restrictions, starting on December 4th, I cut out all carbs, salt and sugar.” Gehl adds “By weigh ins on Friday, December 16th I weighed 132.5 pounds and Adele weighed in at 130.5 pounds.”
Another challenge facing Gehl was managing her breathing. “It was sort of surprising to me,” Gehl says. “With a mouthguard in, you need to be breathing through your nose the entire fight, if possible. An open mouth gives more opportunity for a knockout on the chin or jaw. I consciously breathed through my nose as much as possible through the 3 months, so my instinct wouldn’t be to gasp through my mouth if I was getting tired during the boxing match.”
After three months of training, fight day finally arrived! Gehl tried to keep it as normal as possible. “I woke up at my regular time of 5:00 a.m. then had a cup of coffee, wrote some real estate contracts, answered work emails and messages,” Gehl adds. “Ryan made me a great breakfast of protein pancakes, blueberries, whip cream, bacon and sausage with avocados.”
After the pancakes and avocados settled it was time to start the final preparations for battle. “At 10 a.m. I did a shake out with Zachary, which is pad work equivalent to a full fight,” Gehl says. “The workout consists of hitting combos on the pads for 3, 2-minute rounds. Then relaxed a bit, did some shopping, and went to the venue for 4:00 p.m.”
It was almost time for the fight, the butterflies were flapping around in Gehl’s stomach, and the excitement continued to grow. At Valhalla Combat Sports in Fridley, Minnesota preparations continued. “I had my hair braided and hung out a bit to get acclimatized and get rid of some of the nerves,” Gehl mentions. “Then about 20 minutes before my match Zachary had me doing warmups and hitting the pads to simulate my planned combinations for the fight. My plan was heavy on the left jab, straight right cross combination and then later into the fight throw in some hooks to the body when my opponents’ hands were up.
Finally, it was fight time. Gehl was in the ring, waiting nervously but also focused, determined, and visualizing what was about to happen. “When I was standing in my corner before the fight, not a heck of a lot was going through my mind,” Gehl says. “Just jab, cross jab, cross. During the fight I was listening for coaching from Zachary and Ryan in my corner and thinking keep ring control, land your shots. I heard Ryan and Zach yelling Body, Body. So I threw a few Body shots and then the finishing Body shot that had Adele stopping the fight because she couldn’t continue.”
The fight was stopped just 43 seconds into the first round. Gehl was the winner by way of knockout! The knockout did not go unnoticed as she was awarded the knockout of the night by Valhalla Combat Sports. After the match was over Gehl went out for supper to celebrate.
The fight win is not the only thing Gehl has to celebrate. Gehl fought to raise money for SofiaHouse in Regina. At the moment $900 has been raised through Facebook donations.
When all the dust settled, and all the smoke had cleared Gehl was victorious in her debut fight. At the moment it seems unlikely the 50-year-old real estate broker will step back into the ring. “Ryan and Zach were very happy and proud that I won the fight and got the knockout of the night without sustaining injuries or damage,” Gehl finishes off by saying. “So I am sort of quitting while on top.”
The hard work paid off for Gehl, taking advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity. A 43 second knockout is an accomplishment to be proud of at any age, let alone 50 years old and in your debut fight. Like a fine wine Gehl continues to get better with age.