The day after he lost a charity boxing match with Liberal MP Justin Trudeau, Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau is hoping the two will square off in a rematch next year.
Trudeau was the winner of the bout held to benefit the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. The event raised more than $200,000. The referee stopped the fight before the end of the third round.
Brazeau told CTV's Question Period he doesn't think he underestimated the six-foot-two Trudeau.
"I think I did the typical rookie boxer mistake coming out Raging Bull. I think I did pretty well for the first 45 seconds and I had the chance to knock him out at one point," Brazeau said Sunday.
He says he had trouble getting his heart rate down after the start of the second round, "which is key in boxing, and the rest is now history."
In a post-match scrum, Trudeau said Brazeau was coming at him heavy and hard, but he also knew he'd be able to take anything that came at him.
"But I'll be honest, he hits, really, really hard," Trudeau told reporters.
The Montreal MP said he takes hits and he keeps going, and said Brazeau had reason to be confident because he could hit like a Mack truck.
Before the match, Brazeau could be seen outside the Hampton Inn alone, getting pumped up for the fight by listening to his iPod.
The three-round headliner at Ottawa's Hampton Inn followed a red-carpet event, and had a sell-out crowd.
But it was more than just a tough fight night for Trudeau as his maternal grandmother, Kathleen Sinclair, died Saturday in a British Columbia nursing home at the age of 92.
Before the bout, Trudeau told reporters that he was "feeling good," having been at the gym three times a week – not to mention his years of boxing experience. For his part, Brazeau has a black belt in karate.
"My morning smile," Trudeau tweeted Sunday, "noticed this on my bedside table when I woke up. Je t'aime papa." His tweet linked to a picture of a book cover with a picture of his father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who was suffering prostate cancer and Parkinson's Disease when he died at the age of 80 in 2000.
Brazeau, whose own mother died of lung cancer, raised more than $10,000 himself with the support of his Conservative Senate caucus members and Team Brazeau.
"Perhaps a Brazeau-Trudeau 2 next year would be a good thing, we did raise a lot of money. That was the goal we set out to achieve," the Conservative senator said.
Brazeau appeared on Question Period with what appeared to be a "shiner" on one of his eyes, as host Kevin Newman pointed out.
"The winners in this are all Canadians, because all families have went through or have experienced losing a loved one or family members or friends to cancer," Brazeau says.
Prior to the fight, both men agreed the loser will have to cut his hair in the foyer of the House of Commons on Monday. But Brazeau won't just have to shed his long ponytail, he will also have to wear a jersey bearing the Liberal Party logo for a week.
"Well, that's going to sting even more than losing," he says. "But having said that, a bet is a bet, and I'm a man of my word, and it'll be a long week in terms of some of the joke that I'll have to take. But my skin is quite thick."
