Chelsey St. Pierre – The Suburban LJI Reporter

The City of Pointe-Claire and retired Canadian boxer Otis Grant have teamed up to offer the Grant Brothers Amateur Boxing Program at the Olive-Urquhart Sports Centre.

The program includes boxing classes as well as group and one-on-one training sessions, work-out sessions and a variety of community programs.

For over 20 years, brothers Otis and Howard Grant have been training boxers in the West Island. The duo run their own boxing gym in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, and are now expanding their program to Pointe-Claire.

Pointe-Claire Mayor Tim Thomas told The Suburban that he is very proud to have signed this agreement with Otis Grant and pleased to see that major sports figures are willing to offer their programming in Pointe-Claire’s sports facilities. “This is a win-win for us and the Grant brothers. We fill an under-utilized space with programming and an established martial arts organization and they extend their existent programming to a broader community.”

Otis Grant is a former professional boxer who competed on the world stage and won a silver medal for Canada at the 1987 Pan-American Games. He is also one of the few Quebec boxers to have won a World Boxing Organization (WBO) championship.

Following his professional boxing career, Grant has been involved in a wide variety of community and charity work. The former boxer started his own foundation in 1999, namely The Otis Grant and Friends Foundation, which continues to donate medicine, as well as food and clothing to communities, while also aiding families in need across the country.