It seems a little out of the norm that competitors from the Mission City Boxing Club came away without any hardware from a tournament, but head coach Dale Gatin maintained his fighters' latest expedition to Missouri was about more than gold or silver.

Nine boxers from the club travelled stateside for the Ringside World Championships in Kansas City, Mo. It was an experience Gatin referred to as "the trip of a lifetime."

"It was just a really great learning experience for all our competitors," said Gatin.

"It was also a bit of a culture shock for our guys because we were down south, the weather is really humid, some people have different accents, the food is different, but it was a lot of fun."

Of the nine pugilists who made it to the world championships, seven spent the better part of the summer training in Tulsa, Okla., under the guidance of famed boxing coach Keith Reed.

After four weeks of training and some of the best competition in the world, Gatin said all who competed for the club had a different look about them when they returned home.

"You could just see the difference in confidence," he said. "We were at a boxing event almost two weeks ago in Vancouver and we were just amazed with what we saw. There was a huge difference in the confidence and skill of our fighters."

Cody Brown of Deroche, B.C., about 20 minutes east of Mission, won the club's first ever bout at the World Championships.

Despite the wins not being there this time, Gatin said it was still a successful trip.

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