Oldest athlete at WESPY Awards honoured

Jeff Danby was the recipient of the Windsor Wildcats women's hockey team award for courage and determination Tuesday night at the 17th annual WESPY Awards.

“A real honour to be recognized especially being a 50-year old boxer,” Danby said.

He was into martial arts before putting the gloves on eight years ago.

“At the end of the day in boxing there's no one to blame other than yourself,” Danby said. “You are the offence. You are the defence. It's real. It's in my blood. I can't get enough of it.”

Boxing benefitting him personally and professionally as a Windsor Police officer. In 2019 he decided it was time to put his passion to the test.

“I won Rumble on the River. Then I won the silver gloves tournament in October of 2019.”

In 2022, Danby faced a trio of surgeries. The second one was a routine hernia surgery in the GTA that went wrong.

An artery was nicked during the procedure and could have cost him his life.

“It could have happened. Did I walk away from this. Yes but it could have resulted in death.”

Danby trained hard in 2023 to prove he wasn't done with the sport. He carried that momentum into this year where he won gold at the prestigious Brampton Cup.

“Every time we had a pad session he says hey listen I'm winning the Brampton Cup,” noted Danby’s coach Andre Geoges who went on to say. “There's nothing stopping me so his mental state changed. Like, he was way more determined and more confident.”

Golf great Jack Nicklaus was the keynote speaker at the WESPY's and described Danby, who is 4-0 with two knockouts, to a tee while imparting wisdom on the crowd.

“The competition is great but your competition really is yourself,” said the Golden Bear.

The cruiserweight is heading to Ann Arbor, Las Vegas and Atlantic City later this year to prove he is a winner. “I want belts. Not just one. I want three and realistically I think I can do it.”