Makayla Armstrong and Nova Wheatley flank their Coach Aaron Reid at Aaron’s gym in Yass.
Aaron Reid is guiding the careers of some of the region’s and some of the country’s next generation of boxers. All from within his gym in Yass.
Makayla Armstrong has been with Aaron since she was 12 and the Times has been following the gym and its fighters for about the same time. Makayla has more than 40 fights under her belt. Now 18 she is finishing her schooling and working a job on the side to get herself ahead in life. Remember her name, you could see in at the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, or in our very own Capital city of Brisbane in 2032.
Boxing is called the ‘sweet science’ because it combines the graceful, artistic finesse of a physical chess match with the calculated, technical mechanics of landing blows while avoiding counter-attacks.
For Makayla she also gets to do the one thing she likes, “Punching people in the face”
It’s a fact of life and a fact of the sport, that she revealed to the Times in our interview.
“I know when I’ve done a good one. I can see on their face that it hurts. But it’s the best feeling, to be honest. I like getting punched in the face too.”
When asked how her chin was to take a shot, she said, “The chin is good, it can take a hit. I’m orthodox, so right handed.”
There is nowhere to hide in a boxing gym but through the experience of Reid and his knowledge, his young fighters are brought along, growing their skill-set and partnered with opponents.
18-year-old Makayla Armstrong is now an adult and has recently returned from the Brisbane International Golden Gloves where she won a gold medal.
“It was good to win the medal, but I was a bit sick before I had my fight.”
“Aaron was ready to pull me out of my fight. He came to my room and he said, “I’m going to pull you out” “and I said, no, I’m good to go.”
“I’m so happy that I have done it now.
Makayla loves boxing as it is good for fitness and using different parts of the body.
“At school my favourite subject is my sports development class. We do running and weights for boxing?”
“Everything has developed in my skill set and boxing skill set. Aaron’s helped me a lot. Just my commitment to it. Its developed heaps.”
“Running in the mornings and boxing in the afternoons, driving an hour from home to get to training in the afternoons from Tuggeranong.”
“Just keeping my eyes on things to see where I end up because I want to go to the Olympics, which is in LA in 2028.”
Makayla has full faith and commitment to Aaron who has developed her boxing as she now embarks on what they both hope will be her fledgling career.
“He has done so much coaching of Australian athletes, and ones that have gone to Europe.”
Nova Wheatley is newer to the sport than Makayla, but she has already been at it for two years. She, is also dedicated to the sport, now 11, she started boxing at 9 years of age.
“I won a gold medal as well.” She said. Nova is an International Golden Gloves Champ like Makayla.
“I am an International Golden Gloves champion for my age group. I fought in the 44kg category.”
“I have been training for two years.”
“The biggest thing I’ve improved on is probably my fight, and moving up in classes. My footwork and my punches and a lot more things.”
Still in primary school she trains two days a week and is also an orthodox fighter.
At such a young age, Nova may be looking further afield to another Olympics but she credits her success to coach Aaron and the other fighters around her, looking up to Makayla.
“I want to keep training under Aaron, and I also want to try and get to the Olympics.”
“I get along well with Makayla and I want to follow in her footsteps.”
Nova has had three fights, two before the International Golden Gloves and one for the title. “I have won all three.”
Nova comes from Murrumbateman to train. She said, “It is like one big family.”
Boxing at the highest levels is known for its glitz and glamour, heroes and villains and the promotion of fights which often boils over in the press conference, all of which helps with its promotion and coverage.
Some opponents and their coaches have also tried to pull the odd ‘swifty’ and Aaron’s team has had to deal with the realities of the lives of other opponents who could be older, more experienced or deceptive, but he had nothing but praise for Makayla who had to fend off a virus just a day or two from her recent fight. He thought she was too ill to take to the ring and was going to pull her out. Makayla had other ideas.
“I’ve had many kids during this time where they would take that and run with it, they’d be like, yeah, thank you, (for letting me not fight because I’m sick) or they’ve been sick and they’ve used that as an excuse not to win. Oh, but he was sick. So to see somebody go through that adversity and show up and just go, you know what, this means something to me, and that, as a coach, you see it throughout the years. Then you see on the other side, someone that has just done it. Makayla did. She went out and got the job done. It just imprints that into your head. The want that she’s got for it.”
“She was vomiting two days before the fight. I’m going in there looking at her going oh my god, what do I do here? I just let her sleep it out, keep her hydrated and try and feed her and you don’t know what you’re going to do and then she just turned it up.”
Makayla’s love for the sport has wavered a little over the years, as it would for any teenager. It’s hard, can be lonely and is tough on the body. But she is now excelling.
“She went through a bit of a period, where it was going into teenage years and finding that fire in her belly, she sort of lost that for a little while. When you have success at a young age, it’s a little bit difficult to come through and then try and revamp it in an older age group.”
“The Saturday night fight, when she fought that girl, you could see this girl was good too. She was an adult, like again, she’s only just turned 18 and she had been fighting adults since the age of 15 and beating them.”
“The way in which she handled that fight on Saturday night was, as a coach, you can overcook things sometimes and go, well, was that the right fight at that time leading up before the International Golden Gloves? Did I muck up? And that was all going through my head as well.”
“Did I make a mistake here by putting her in such an event. I didn’t realise the emotion and the event because it was a veteran’s tournament and it was a very high quality tournament. This girl was an Army girl and it brought out something in her and the crowd and so Makayla had to lift, fighting off something at the time as well.”
“She is a legitimate chance, skill-wise, to go through on to the Olympics. It has been a target for a long time now. She has all the assets. She has fought 42 fights now at the age of 18. She’s beating adults, so she’s got all the skill sets. She’s got the discipline, she wants to fight the best.
She wants to test herself. She didn’t shy away from it. I gave her an option of two fights and she wants the harder fight against Monique Suraci.”
Suraci is a 25 year old 51kg 2024 Paris Olympian, and 2026 Commonwealth games representative. One thing for sure, is that Makayla won’t take a backwards step, it’s onwards and upwards for the 18 year old and the Valley Boxing Gym.
Not only are these young fighters learning discipline and respect, they are learning to defend themselves and pursue their chosen sport all in one.
In other boxing news related to the gym, Aaron had two other athletes compete in Katie Hawke who beat the Oceana champion from a different league and who has just moved to Aaron’s association. Sam Sullivan also fought all 3 days to take out the light heavyweight division, the hardest strongest division in the whole tournament.
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