Early Life
Lalonde was one of four children. His father, a salesman, left the family when he was three. When his mother remarried, Lalonde accepted his stepfather immediately. However, when he was eleven, his stepfather started to become abusive. It began when Lalonde saw him beating up his mother. "I jumped on his back to stop him, and he hit me," Lalonde said. "After that, it just seemed easier and easier for him to do that."
When Lalonde was fifteen, he ran away from home. He was tired of school and tired of the beatings. He worked odd jobs around Kitchener and Winnipeg. He first walked into a boxing gym when he was seventeen. He got into boxing "to try to reestablish self-esteem, respect, pride," he said. "Boxing is a way of doing that." Lalonde had an amateur record of 11-4 and turned professional in 1980.
Read more about this topic: Donny Lalonde
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