Wayne Bourque

Who is Wayne Bourque?

Wayne Bourque has been the North American Native boxing champ three times in the welterweight and middleweight classes. He was born in 1959 to Métis parents in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. He is the cousin of a Montreal Canadiens forward René Bourque, and he has trained several National Hockey League hockey players.

To protect himself from racist attacks, he learned to box. He won his first tournament, the Northwest Pacific Gold Gloves, at the age of 13 in Seattle.

Instead of turning professional, Bourque retired from amateur boxing in 1985 and became a fitness trainer. He currently heads a boxercise centre and a summer camp in Toronto, Canada where participants use boxing exercises to get fit without the physical contact of boxing matches. His clients have included Russell Crowe, whom he worked with in the movie Cinderella Man.