GSP visited Leonard Doroftei in Montreal, where the former world champion opened a boxing gym in an industrial shop in mid-December. Having left the country in 2019, “Leonard Dorin” – the professional boxing stage name – cannot be found in Montreal and wants to return to Romania.

“They told me to bring my picture,” laughs the coach of three children. Now 22, he won the WBA lightweight belt and held it for two years. From the moment he won a match against Raul Balbi in January 2002, Leonard Doroftei – or Leonard Dorin as the North American public called him – had almost everything in Canada and then lost almost everything in Romania.

In 2019, at a difficult time in his life, he returned across the ocean to find himself. He received coaching licenses, gives boxing lessons to the children of Romanian immigrants and opened his own boxing gym. Careful, he doesn’t let his mind take a single day off.

“I work from Monday to Monday, without a break. I earn about 5,000 to 6,000 Canadian dollars a month (3,500 to 4,200 euros a month),” says “Grandpa”.

More details at GSP.ro