Tamil Heritage Month: First Canadian Tamil Professional Boxer – Mathusan Mahindas – CHIP Conversations

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! For those who may not know, January is known as Tamil Heritage Month and for 2024 I wanted to put out a series of content that I have envisioned for CHIP Lifestyle since the beginning, a web-interview series. This series is called CHIP Conversations as I speak to individuals who have made a name for themselves or are on the rise of making one who have unique and diverse experiences. These experiences include hardships they challenged to succeed and perspectives they gained along the way. For my first guest, I sat down in the boxing ring with the first Canadian Tamil professional boxer, Mathusan Mahindas to talk about his career, upbringing, hardships he encountered, and of course, Tamil Heritage! Please watch the video below (closed captions on screen) or read below and see some of the photos I took of him. Please feel free to like, share, and subscribe to the channel while also following the blog on social media (Tiktok, Instagram, and Facebook).

Tagan: Can you introduce yourself?

Mathusan: My name is Mathusan Mahindas. I’m a professional boxer fighting out of Scarborough, Toronto, Canada.

Tagan: So you’re relatively early in your career, but you’ve already made a name for yourself or well, starting to build a name for yourself. As you continue to grow, I do want to talk about your early beginnings and what made you even pursue boxing in the first place.

Mathusan: I say I always liked fighting, as a kid. I always watched TV shows about fighting, animes, and different things like that. I also grew up in a rougher environment as a kid. When I first, was born in Mornelle Court, which is like very very low-income housing, things like that and I grew up fighting with my cousins and playing with my friends and I grew up very rough in the beginning. My family ended up moving to the Malvern Community, which is another low-income area in of same/similar situations as Mornelle Court. I was just exposed to fighting my whole life, but I never really had the option to (explore) because my parents couldn’t afford to put me in karate or kind of like things I wanted to do in that regard. But I was getting into fights at school being just a rough kid from that place and then I grew up loving to fight then one day I watched an anime about boxing called Hajime no Ippo. And then once I saw that anime I was like, “Yo I’m starting… I’m starting tomorrow!” And then I got a job at McDonald’s, paid for it myself, and just took it from there.

Tagan: At what age were you at that time?

Mathusan: At that time I was I was about 16 years old. I got my friend- my friend, He knows who he is, my friend at Mother Teresa (High School) got me a job at McDonald’s at Markham and Denison. I started there, right in front of that Costco. Everyone knows that one. I worked there and I was fighting at the same time.

Tagan: Wow, from an anime to your first job to boxing. All right, that’s dope first of all. I guess like for you the way you kind of talked about it is that it’s always kind of been in the path but was there any other time where you felt that maybe boxing isn’t for you? Maybe you’re gonna commit to something else? Because you did start at 16, but was there any other time like maybe you’re gonna pursue something else?

Mathusan: Yeah, like when you start your of course, your parents don’t want you to box. They think it’s really dangerous or something. Like “Yo just be an accountant or something”. Myself, I didn’t- I always did the other things like I always secured the plan B, you know? Like, I graduated from school. I was boxing my whole university career. I kind of did it for my mom a little bit. You know, just make sure she understood the dangers of it. So she wanted to make sure I had something secure outside of it. So I was doing both at the same time, and I always saw something. If I ever get out of boxing I could pivot into this, but it will never let it deter me so I just kept beating the hammer towards boxing.

Tagan: So what are some hardships that you faced in your boxing career? And were there any new perspectives that you learned from those hardships and how you overcame them?

Mathusan: Definitely. Especially when you’re boxing as an amateur, you’re not gonna win every fight right? Not even cause your own skill. Sometimes you just get robbed of a decision, You know, you go to another guy’s hometown in the middle of nowhere, and then, you know, the crowds all cheering for him, and then they’re not gonna- you know, you’re most likely not gonna win that fight. Even if you beat the guy.

Tagan: Honestly, the underdog mentality for sure.

Mathusan: So those are hardships you have to come through. Like even when even you have to realize that even when you lose it’s not really a loss because as long as you… I always see it as long as I perform well and I do what I’m supposed to do, I consider it a win.

Of course, I’m always trying my absolute hardest to get my hand raised at the end. But sometimes it just doesn’t come down to it at the end of the day, right? But as long as you keep trying, you keep persevering, you keep getting better and better each fight the W’s will come. Don’t let the losses at the beginning especially, deter you. So that’s definitely a perspective that I’ve worked on.

And then another thing, this is something my coach always drilled in us. But, you can’t let the highs get too high. You can’t let the lows get too low. Of course, you got to keep it in the middle. Because especially in a sport like this like you can be like, yeah I won by knockout. I’m the best and then you lose a fight and you’re at rock bottom, right?

Tagan: Yeah, that’s a good perspective though, for anything in life.

Tagan: Whether it be in your boxing career or personal life… What are some challenges you continue to face? And how do you overcome it? Besides just boxing? Are there- any daily challenges? Any hardships that you kind of overcome?

Mathusan: Yeah. Like sometimes you’re not you’ll be not motivated. You know, you wake up the next day like you’re not gonna always be 100% to get up and do everything you’re supposed to do that day. But I feel like you gotta practice consistency. Like consistency is a practice. People always go to the gym a couple of times and then they do too much and then they quit the next day and then they go back like two months later. You gotta… even if you’re not feeling great and you know you’re not gonna be doing great when you get there… go anyway. That’s where you got to be like, comfortable being uncomfortable. Being in boxing like you like for example, you’ll be winning a round comfortably then in the next round. the guy changes things up. You’re gonna be you know, you might be on the receiving end now and then you got to still be like weather the storm and get back the momentum. So practicing that mindset outside of the ring is very important and also inside of the ring.

Tagan: What other advice would you have for someone who probably has some similar challenges and hardships?

Mathusan: I’m gonna say try to be consistent. Consistency is always the biggest key to anything in life. If you’re like whether you’re studying for a test, you just have to study consistently. Like maybe not like you’re not gonna do a whole one hour today, but if we can do 30 minutes a day, 30 minutes tomorrow, and every day you do 30 minutes, versus if you were to like to do one hour and then you burn yourself out and then you don’t get back to it. Like, as long as you build something consistent in anything you do. I think the results will show.

Tagan: So, I’ve been following your career for a while now, I remember even hearing about you when you first started at Gideon, which is where we are at right now, and I heard about it through a mutual friend of ours… and for those that don’t know, currently you’re 6-0 with two KOs under your belt and you had fights in Scarborough and Mexico… You have a lot of accomplishments so far, but is there anything, any one of these accomplishments that you’ve had so far that really stood out to you?

Mathusan: Yeah, I’d say my biggest accomplishment that stands out to me is that I made my professional debut on March 26th of 2022 in Mexico and that cemented me as the first Tamil Canadian professional boxer. Which for our people is massive because knowing our history and where we come from, our parents, and grandparents, didn’t get to chase their dreams. They were forced to come to Canada or London or wherever they had to go from there and then they weren’t- they had to provide for their family, but I’m a person who’s able to chase my dream coming from that environment.

I’m the first person to be able to pursue things artistically, and athletically in a different route than my parents were able to and that’s because they were able to provide for me too. So I appreciate that and that I feel is my biggest accomplishment.

Tagan: For sure man, and we talk about it, right? Like our parents seeking refuge from Sri Lanka and coming here. trying to get a good life for us. And I think often, it’s kind of like a bittersweet moment when we have these dreams and we’re pursuing them as kids of immigrants, you know what I mean? Because we’re so thankful for everything that they’ve given us but are we guilty in pursuing that dream? But like you clearly made and showed for yourself how much you deserve this and how much work you put into this. So, kudos to you man.

Tagan: Any specific goals that you have in the near future or like maybe 10 years from now? Is there anything that you’re having your eyes on, like what you want to claim? Yeah.

Mathusan: I want to be the first Tamil Canadian World Champion in the sport of boxing within the next three years.

Tagan: Within the next three years?

Mathusan: That’s my goal. That’s what I’ve been working towards and well, today’s December 31st (2023). Tomorrow is gonna be the new year. So, my New Year’s resolution for 2024 is to step into the bigger fights trying to get into eight-round, 10-round fights by the end of next year and that’s what I’m gunning towards to really get a kick at it and then two years after that will be trying to get into the world championship level. So, that’s that’s the plan.

Tagan: So one of the main reasons why we’re here today is to talk about, obviously as you mentioned, making your debut as a professional boxer and being of Tamil descent. One of the first if not the first, first and only?

Mathusan: I’m the first Tamil-Canadian there’s another Tamil professional boxer fighting out of Germany… I believe. There are other Tamil champions in the past, a long time ago fighting at flyweight divisions in the 1950s, and 1940s. We actually have a big history in the sport of boxing, you wouldn’t even know. But it’s all been… I don’t know. I don’t know why people don’t even realize it, but I did my homework and there are long-time ago boxers in black-and-white pictures fighting with the old stance and stuff so that’s crazy.

Tagan: I was gonna say you never shy away from repping Scarborough and you never shy away from repping your Tamil Heritage. So I kind of wanted to talk to you a bit about that and you can already segwayed into this. So can you talk to us a bit more about that, about being Tamil, your own Tamil Heritage and pride? And also, how or what it mean to be Tamil in the world of boxing?

Mathusan: Yeah, I think being Tamil, particularly in the world of boxing when I first started there’s no- there’s no one else doing it, right? There’s no one I didn’t see any other Tamil fighters when I was fighting. It’s just been, it’s been kind of trippy to do it because I thought I was the first one but then like as I went through and I kind of like did more research and other people reaching out to me like “oh did you know there’s this Tamil boxer from the 1950s?” There’s this guy fighting here. And then I got more kind of see that, I’m kind of like a pioneer in the modern era. There were people that did this long before me but then there was like between like 1970 to like to right until now basically there wasn’t no Tamil boxers in the world like not just for like Sri Lankan Tamil but like You know Tamil, there’s a few Tamil Indians, but there’s like Malaysian Tamil. There are UK Tamils, and now they’re all popping up.

There’s new kids boxing. Starting a lot of kids in this gym that are Tamil boxers who’ve had amateur fights and these kids taking it, they’re doing really well. Like they’re getting to like the higher levels like because when you start as a boxer you start in the novice division and then like novice kind of doesn’t count, you know when you’re fighting other guys under 10 fights, but when you hit over 10, you can fight anybody who has over 10 fights. So then that’s where like the big, like the deep end comes in so these kids getting there. So I really like it. It’s really expanding and…

Tagan: Yeah, you’re putting me on a lot of stuff. I was gonna say that I personally did not know anybody else except for you, you know what I mean? And so the fact that I see you or heard of you before you started and then to debut that’s amazing and now you’re even being really humble and talking about other fighters, that’s amazing.

Mathusan: I think our community comes from a lot of hardship, especially from the war back home. So they’ve come here and I feel like our people are always fighting like they’re fighting at work to like provide for their families and then, of course, I don’t mean to put it this way but, you know, there’s a lot of like fighting just in our community between people our age and people fighting over like things that are like trivial, like girls or money and you know, a lot of egos get involved and alcoholism in our community drug use, things like that. And I think like people just didn’t-  haven’t found an outlet and maybe I’m very lucky to have found my own outlet to be able to take out frustration in the boxing gym and pursue something and keep my mind distracted which other people aren’t/haven’t been lucky enough to find and I hope like maybe seeing me do this… They’ll turn around or like even if they take a piece of like something from the mentality or something. They can make a change in their lives. So that’s really important to me for me for the Tamil community and Scarborough.

Tagan: I think you are inspiring a lot of people not just the Tamil Community, but like a lot of people I’ve seen it, bro. So kudos to you on that one. See with CHIP conversations we talk about the challenges and hardships. Do you have any specific challenges or hardships you faced being Tamil? Whether it be in your personal life or whether it be in the Boxing ring, Is there anything that kind of stood out to you and anything that you currently dealt with or have overcome?

Mathusan: I would say like being a person of color in the sport sometimes you don’t get the fair decision like especially if you go like out of town like I’m fighting in the middle of Timbuktu. The whole crowd is against me my coach is a Jamaican Black man. I’m a Tamil boxer. And then people just look at us like whoa, like what is going on here? This is a circus show right here. Definitely a minority there. Yeah, and then you pull out maybe you pull out the fight or at the end of the fight, you gain people’s respect. By seeing your skills, because at the end of the day inside of the Ring… religion, creed, color, Race, it doesn’t matter. It’s just two gloves. He has two gloves. He has two arms. You have two arms. Let’s fight.

Tagan: Despite peoples’ maybe misconceptions of you, their judgments and everything like that when- before you step into the ring, but then after the fact you win some people over just goes to show that you let your work kind of speak for you, right? You made some fans along the way throughout your own journey. So that’s amazing.

Tagan: I know we’re talking about Tamil Heritage. What do you want other people to know about Tamil Heritage or Tamil Culture?

Mathusan: I think we have a beautiful culture. It’s all and I think a lot of our cultures are represented in music and art. And we don’t-  we haven’t made as big of an impact athletically. We are making, we have a few outliers that are coming out and I think we have to show that we are also a force in this as well. And I think that’s important for me to show for our people, Especially a long time ago, I didn’t even know this when I first started boxing but my grandpa was actually like an MMA fighter and he did Karate. I  didn’t know that until after I started boxing and there are other champions In Sri Lanka that people have no idea about like the greatest cricketers have been from Sri Lanka. There are a lot of weird athletic feats that we’ve done but people have no idea because they get buried or yeah people have, they just like history was erased for us, right?

Tagan: So that’s why we’re here today right? Kind of trying to change that narrative, and use the platform to speak our truth.

Tagan: So as we wrap this up any final thoughts that you want to share?

Mathusan: I want to thank you guys for taking a listen to the interview with CHIP Lifestyle today. I hope you guys have a great 2024 and look out for me next year. I’m gonna be making big waves.

Tagan: For sure, so make sure you follow and subscribe, at CHIP Lifestyle. We’re going to do CHIP Conversations going forward and make sure you also look at the links in the description because I will have the links to the Mathusan’s Instagram and other social so you can continue to support. Thank you so much and happy Tamil Heritage Month.

If you would like to follow Mathusan’s career, make sure to give him a follow on Instagram and TikTok. If you would like to follow the blog for more CHIP Conversations and other engaging content, make sure to visit the site regularly and follow on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook!