Fisun earns national wrestling title

Taras Fisun is a national wrestling champion.

The 19-year-old Brandonite — who moved to the city in September 2024 from Ukraine and whose hometown is now under Russian occupation — attended the Canadian Wrestling Championships in Montreal last Saturday and left with a gold medal in the 92-kilogram division of the open senior non-Olympic division.

What makes his success even more remarkable is that he was fighting in a different age class for the first time against bigger wrestlers. As a result, Fisun wasn’t sure what to expect when he arrived in Montreal last Friday.

“I didn’t know how good it was,” Fisun said. “It was hard because my weight is 86 kilograms. Because I don’t have permanent residency and a Canadian passport, I couldn’t go in 86 kilograms because there was an age group under 20 years old, which was my age. I can’t go there because of my documents, so I went into senior.”

His older brother Stas, who trains with him and coaches him, said it was a much more difficult path for him.

“If it was a little bit lower weight category, it would have been much easier for him,” Stas said. “He could use his physical power at 85 kilos more than at 92. At 92, if you check the photo, all the guys were bigger than him. He was a little guy and skinny but he still won and showed us what he can do. He showed them on the mats.”

Even with the size disadvantage, Fisun started in dominant fashion. He posted 10-0 scores against both Joseph De Maio and Shahabdin Bakhtyari of Edmonton, who went on to win the consolation event. Stas chuckled when asked what his brother was doing well in Montreal.

“Everything,” Stas said. “He was throwing good, he had better technique and his cardio was better. He was better in every fight.”

That put Fisun into the final against Quebec’s Xavier Lauzon, who had earned a close victory against Andrew Johnson and then advanced when his opponent Thomas Rousseau was injured during their match.

In the final, which was the third match of the day for both wrestlers, Fisun took a 2-0 lead with a takedown 24 seconds in. But he also quickly realized how big the task was that lay ahead.

“He did a weight cut,” Fisun said, which means the other fighter had to lose pounds to compete, while he was underweight for the division. “When I did a double leg, this guy was big.”

In the next minute of the match, Lauzon took a 4-2 lead. When the wrestlers reset in the middle of the mat, Fisun had his hands on his knees as he looked over at his brother and waited for the match to start again after a brief delay.

“I was a little bit in shock,” Fisun said. “My game plan was 10-0, all matches go 10-0. When I gave up four points, I saw the look on my brother, who was sitting on a chair, and he just looked at me and it was ‘Taras, what are you doing?’

“The final was hard.”

Within 11 seconds of the break, Fisun tied it 4-4, and by the time the first three-minute period ended, he led 7-4 against the bigger wrestler. After a quick break, within 66 seconds Fisun was up 10-4, and 1:37 into the second period he went up 14-4 and was awarded the match.

“When I started attacking this guy, I felt like this guy was tired,” Fisun said. “I was tired. I was on zero protein, my whole body was like a zombie. This guy was tired too and I got a little bit of energy and would go every time and shoot legs.”

He said his reaction to winning was fairly normal, in part because he didn’t have a more dominant showing. Fisun sat in a chair and someone came over and told him he was a national champion.

“I just shook my head to this guy and said thank you and just breathed hard,” Fisun said with a laugh.

His parents are also in Brandon, and while Stas said they were excited to hear Taras had won a Canadian title, they also know how talented he is after training since he was five. Their father was also a wrestler, so the older brother calls it their “family business.”

It’s not Fisun’s first success at a major national event. He won gold at the Canada Summer Games last August in St. John’s, N.L. Fisun gave up just one point in eight matches as he went unbeaten to capture the men’s individual up-to-85 kg division.

Also in 2025, he attended the Canadian Wrestling Championships for under-19, U17 and U15 athletes in late April, and returned with a bronze medal at 79 kgs.

He then wrestled at the freestyle senior championships in late May, falling to one of Canada’s top athletes in the division.

The success comes despite Taras only having one training partner.

Stas, a married father of two in his thirties who works long hours, gets to the gym when he can to train with Taras.

“I’m the only partner for him,” Stas said. “All my day I’m busy because I wake up at 5 o’clock and go to work, and after work my family. Sometimes in the evening I work with him, but after my day, I’m tired and it’s not the best age for it.”

Fisun wasn’t even planning on competing at nationals because of the cost, but his brother urged him to attend. On his birthday in April, Stas told him he would pay for the trip and expenses. Taras is thankful for his brother’s help, and understands the sacrifice he is making.

“He wrestles with me and works with me, and in this time, he has work on a farm and he has two sons and a family,” Fisun said. “It was a hard time for him. He’s working, he has kids, and then he works with me.”

Fisun, who helps his brother teach wrestling classes at WAMMA Brandon, worked out three times a day to prepare.

He now has a university interested in him, and they would give him a scholarship, help with some of his other expenses and send him to wrestling camps.

He’s not sure what his next event is, but he has been invited to a two-week wrestling camp in Calgary later this month. He’ll be bringing along another Ukrainian immigrant, 15-year-old Danylo Litvinov, who also lives in Brandon.

Prior to the national championship, he had actually been thinking of trying mixed martial arts.

“Right now I don’t want MMA because I’m a national champion,” Fisun said. Fisun, whose grasp of English has improved remarkably, said that’s a big reason for his continued improvement, because now he understands people better.

He is understandably an advocate for the sport. He had already graduated in Ukraine prior to coming but attended Vincent Massey to improve his command of the language.

He wishes the school, and others in Manitoba, had wrestling programs for young athletes.

“At Vincent Massey we need a wrestling program for kids who want to do wrestling, more than hockey they love wrestling,” Fisun said. “We need a head coach and they can do it in high school and middle school. When kids go in competitions and win, they want too much funds. Usually in school, you go in a competition and the school goes with you and watch.

“We don’t have this in Brandon. It’s in Winnipeg and other provinces but we in Brandon don’t have it.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com