Photo: Vincent Ethier | Stéphane Joanisse and Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse, in the emotion of the moment of conquering the WBC heavyweight world championship of ‘Vany’.
It was 8 years ago, but Stéphane Joanisse remembers it as if it were yesterday. He was sitting at the bar in Sorel-Tracy, after the weigh-in for a Pascal Villeneuve fight. Discussing with Stéphane Larouche and Pierre Bouchard, he said:
“I don’t know exactly where, but I have a feeling that boxing will take me far.”
Years later, on March 7th, boxing took him as far as a coach can go; to winning a world championship. That night, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse (no relation) defeated Abril Vidal by split decision to claim the WBC title in the heavyweight division.
Carrying boxing forward
Before boxing took him far, Stéphane Joanisse did the same with his sport. A big boxing fan since childhood, the Cantley native first practiced karate and judo due to his parents’ concerns about his primary passion. At 18, he freely put on the gloves and officially became an amateur boxer.
In parallel, he joined law enforcement and the ranks of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), where vocation and passion intersected for the first time, as he participated in the 2005 Police World Championships. However, the lack of geographical stability due to his work eventually ended his amateur boxing career.
But from there arose his career as a cornerman.
When he got a position on the North Coast, it all began…
“It was in Schefferville, where you can only get there by train. Leaving, I remember telling my wife, ‘since we’re isolated there for two years, I’ll coach and give back my passion for boxing,'” he explains, met at the BG Boxing Club in Buckingham.
That’s where he coaches today, nearly 1,200 kilometers from where he started.
Promoting the noble art
Initially, his idea met with some reluctance, that of “the little white guy nobody knows” who wants to teach boxing to young people from the Naskapi and Innu nations, in an already heavily criminalized area.
Fortunately, his status as a police officer lent credibility to his project, and the band councils decided to get on board.
“I might have been a little traumatized because my parents didn’t want me to box,” he laughs, “but it has always been my life plan to promote the best of the sport; the rules, respect, work ethic, involvement, and all that.”
So he took advantage of his years on the North Shore to teach not only the finest values of the sport but also real boxing skills. Despite the significant travel expenses, many of his young people went on to the Quebec Cup.
A real school
After a few years, around 2010, he returned home bringing his sport with him. In Saint-André-Avellin, the Petite-Nation Boxing Club was born.
There, the work of “demystifying” the sport continued.
“It was still like that, especially in an environment where there was only hockey and soccer. I wanted to show that boxing was like a school of life, that those who entered the gym could be better people when they came out,” he says.
“I’ve always thought that coaching young people comes with responsibility. Anyone can come in and hit a bag – learn boxing – but I’m one of those who believes that boxing can also teach you a lot,” he adds.
The double break
One of the best examples of flourishing through boxing is undoubtedly Vanessa Lepage Joanisse. She who “grew up” at the Petite-Nation Boxing Club: from beginner in 2011 to contender for the world title in 2017.
After that, when she decided to leave the world of boxing, a series of events led her coach to do the same, a few months later.
“It was several things, I had put so much energy into it, and I don’t regret it, but with my family, my work, I needed to invest elsewhere,” says the man who, like VLJ, left only to come back stronger…
Call from Gaumont
All of this brings us to the height of the pandemic, at the intersection of 2020-2021, when Stéphane Joanisse thought his coaching career was behind him. That’s when his good friend and – until then – former colleague Marcellin Gaumont called him.
“He said to me: ‘Steph, Alex [Gaumont] wants to turn pro, but we won’t do it if you don’t come with us.’ Finally, that’s when I said to myself: ‘who am I to stop the kid from living his dream?'”
Stéphane Joanisse was back. And that was just the beginning.
The big comeback
Alexandre Gaumont progresses quickly and impresses, so much so that the Eye of the Tiger promoter offers him a contract. Meanwhile, in the midst of the pandemic bubble, a familiar face appears at the BG de Buckingham: Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse.
“She came the first time, we know the story, with the weight she had gained. I felt she was trying to convince herself, and it didn’t work. It was later, in 2022, that she came back, but she had her path on her side, she had lost almost 50 pounds and then she believed in it!”
Once ready to fight, EOTTM was not hard to convince afterward.
“I was at the Casino, in Alex’s corner. After the fight, Camille [Estephan] came to talk to me about Vanessa’s comeback. I almost jokingly told him we were just waiting for him to give us a fight, and then he said to me: ‘Oh yeah? Perfect!’ That same evening, Marc Ramsay offered us a contract.”
The rest is history.
The next chapter
But now that this story is accomplished, what’s next for Stéphane Joanisse?
“What more can you do? Not just to win the title, but to have done it starting from scratch with an athlete. In Quebec alone, apart from Marc Ramsay with Jean Pascal, very few coaches have done that,” he says proudly.
With a sense of accomplishment, he seems destined to do more, especially with Gaumont (9-0, 6 KOs) who will continue his ascent on May 25th, but also with ‘Vany’ (7-1, 2 KOs) aiming for new heights.
Because a world title is like a glass of milk. One is good, but two is better. The summit of the WBC is conquered, but there is also that of the IBF, where the Oceanian Lani Daniels reigns supreme, both in the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions.
“It’s clear that she would be our first choice, but we leave that in Camille’s hands,” concludes Stéphane Joanisse, already very busy being a city policeman, cornerman for two athletes, and above all, a father of a family of three.
CORNERMAN, THE FULL SERIES
CORNERMAN, PART I: THE 12 TASKS OF MARC RAMSAY
CORNERMAN, PART II: THE ‘MIKE MOFFA’ WAY
CORNERMAN, PART III: SAMUEL DÉCARIE-DROLET, THE BOXING TEACHER
