Danny Stonewalker

Danny Stonewalker, born Danny John Lindstrom in Fort McMurray on 4 May 1960, belonged to that sturdy Canadian tradition of fighting men who did not wait for the world to come to them. He fought out of Edmonton, boxed orthodox, and built a professional career that took him from Alberta halls to Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, and Winnipeg, and eventually finished with a career professional record of 13 wins, 11 defeats, and 3 draws, with 6 stoppage victories. Danny Stonewalker passed away in Edmonton on 6 March 2018. He remains a notable figure in Canadian amateur boxing, having won national titles in two divisions.

The Wood Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame credits Lindstrom with beginning at the age of 10, fighting out of the Clearwater Boxing Club, compiling an amateur record of 76-4, winning Canadian, Alberta Golden Gloves and provincial titles three times apiece, and rising as high as number six in the world at light-heavyweight.

He made his professional debut on 22 April 1985, stopping Wayne Grant in the first round in Calgary. That set the tone. Stonewalker was not brought along on satin cushions. He beat Willie Mayberry in Hobbema in his second bout, then was taken to Las Vegas, where the matchmaking was brisk and, at times, unforgiving. In a relatively short span, he met Ron Daniels, Dave Tiberi, Aaron Windom, Calvin Ellsworth, Shaun Ayers and Marcellus Allen, drawing with Tiberi and Ayers and losing to Daniels and Allen while still learning his trade. There was good work mixed into that ledger. In June 1986, he outpointed Willie Featherstone in Edmonton over eight rounds, a result that gained value when Featherstone later became a Canadian and Commonwealth champion. Stonewalker’s professional record was never the tidy product of soft matchmaking. It was the record of a man who was expected to cope.

The best years of his career came at light-heavyweight. On 8 December 1987, he challenged Willie Featherstone at Toronto’s C.N.E. Coliseum for the Canadian and Commonwealth titles and lost over 12 rounds, but he stayed in the frame. After an inactive 1989, he returned to beat Dave Fiddler in Red Deer on 29 January 1990 for the vacant Canadian light-heavyweight title, then defeated Fiddler again in Edmonton that July to retain it. Between those two Fiddler fights came the night for which he is most widely remembered. On 15 December 1990, in Pittsburgh, Stonewalker challenged the undefeated Michael Moorer for the WBO light-heavyweight title and was stopped in the eighth round. It was a losing effort, but a significant one: later reports and local sporting records treat it as the breakthrough moment that made him the first Indigenous fighter from Canada, and the first Albertan, to reach that level of world-title opportunity. BoxRec’s biographical entry also remembered the manner in which he carried himself, noting that he entered in full Cree buckskin regalia. In the ring, he was spoken of as a boxer with a strong jab, quick feet and a memorable right hand, and that sounds about right for a man who could win rounds boxing and still finish matters with authority.

His later career took him up in weight and into rougher country. He defended the Canadian light-heavyweight title with a second-round stoppage of Terry Jesmer in Edmonton in March 1991, then lost the belt by eighth-round stoppage to Drake Thadzi in Moncton that August. By 1992, he was operating at heavyweight, which brought both opportunity and punishment. He lost in Las Vegas to former WBA heavyweight champion Michael Dokes and then to Dicky Ryan, but on 8 October 1992, he beat George McFall in Winnipeg to win the vacant Canadian heavyweight title.

Contemporary Indigenous press rightly treated that as historic, calling him the first Canadian to win both the national light-heavyweight and heavyweight titles and the first Native Canadian heavyweight champion. His final years in the ring were hard going: defeats to Kenny Keene and Ken Lakusta, a 10-round draw with Jimmy Gradson in Edmonton in a bout described by Windspeaker as the first sanctioned cruiserweight contest held in Canada, and a third-round knockout loss to Jeff Lampkin in Salta in May 1994. By the end, he had travelled widely, fought often, and left an honest record behind him. Outside the ropes, later reports say he struggled with addiction and periods of homelessness before reconnecting with his daughter, Poppy. He died in Edmonton at 57, with public tributes remembering not only the losses and titles, but the example he set for Indigenous boxers who came after him.