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If you know Canadian boxing, you know the Downey family.
The renowned “Fighting Downeys” are part of a seventh-generation Black Canadian family who have made their mark across not just boxing, but arts, culture, and politics in Nova Scotia.
Raymond “Sugar Ray” Downey, a member of the services team at Halifax Shipyard, is a part of this esteemed family. A two-time Olympian (1988, 1992) and bronze medalist at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Raymond also won silver at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, several golds at Canadian junior, intermediate, senior championships, and other medals at international competitions. In his 15 years of amateur boxing, Raymond won 160 bouts and lost only 20. As a professional, he was 16-2-1 with eight knockouts.
Raymond started boxing at ten years old, tagging along with his father, David Downey Sr., Canada’s longest reigning middleweight boxing champion, to Citadel Boxing Gym in Halifax one day after school. While his father was getting changed, the club’s owner, Taylor Gordon, a boxing legend in his own right, offered Raymond the opportunity to give boxing a try. Raymond gladly accepted and immediately connected with the sport.
“He told me from the first time I met him, ‘You’re going to make the Olympics someday’, and I said ‘Yeah, right,’” Raymond recounts of Gordon. “But I guess he planted a seed there.”
From a ten-year-old in the gym with his father to representing Canada on the biggest stage, Raymond took it one step at a time.
“Over the years, I just stayed with it and progressed. My escalation to that point was so gradual that everything seemed to come in steps. Before I knew it, I was there on the cusp of it. And then I made it.”
And as for that Olympic medal? “That’s the gravy,” he laughs. “Just making it to the Olympics itself is quite a feat. Many attempt but only a few make it.”
Raymond was recently inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame and is a member of the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame along with his father.
The Downey family has been in Canada more than 200 years. Raymond’s relative Cazhhmere, a director and filmmaker, traced the family’s story in Nova Scotia in the documentary “Deeply Rooted”.
Raymond recently learned that his familial roots carry added significance to his work at Halifax Shipyard; Raymond is a distant relative of William Hall. The namesake of the fourth Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship built at Halifax Shipyard for the Royal Canadian Navy, William Hall was the first Black person, the first Nova Scotian and the third Canadian to receive the British Empire’s highest award for bravery, the Victoria Cross.
“I didn’t find out until after the ship was built, but I felt such a sense of pride at the commissioning ceremony knowing I built that.”
Coming up on six years at Irving Shipbuilding, Raymond is currently in training to be a spray painter.
“The thing I love most about this job is that every day you can do something different. That keeps me invigorated, and I’m looking forward to becoming a spray painter,” says Raymond.
With a boxing career like Raymond’s, he would have every right to brag. But that’s not Raymond. Raymond carries himself with a friendly confidence, proud of his accomplishments but humble to his core.
“I appreciate the acknowledgement of what I’ve done, but it’s such a personal thing,” he says. “It wasn’t for the fame. I was a kid who participated in the sport and took it as far as I could go with it. To me it was a moment in time in my life. I’m grateful to have the moment.”
Still, Raymond knows his boxing career will stay with him the rest of his life.
“There’s a lot I’ve gained from sport. Sport teaches you so many life lessons: how to persevere, to keep your mind intact, how to cope under pressure. That’s the kind of stuff you carry with you into the world.”
Hardworking, affable, and cool under pressure. That’s Raymond.