TORONTO - When Mandy Bujold learned that women's boxing would make its Olympic debut at the 2012 Games in London, she never doubted she'd be part of the historic moment.

Instead, she watched history unfold from her living room back home.

"It was hard," Bujold said. "Watching the opening ceremonies and stuff, it was just so frustrating to see, because I remember even in 2010, watching the Olympic opening ceremonies (in Vancouver) and thinking 'I'm going to be in the next one. The next time I see an opening ceremonies, I'm going to be in it.'

"You train your mind like that, and all of a sudden it comes, and you're sitting at home."

The world No. 2-ranked Bujold begins her Rio Olympic quest at the Canadian championships that begin Sunday in Montreal, the first chapter in her Olympic rewrite.

Bujold was considered a shoo-in for the London Olympics, and when she won gold at the 2011 Pan American Games, she thought she'd clinched her spot. But the newness of the women's event meant mass confusion about qualifying. It was decided that the world championships, rather than Pan Ams, would be the qualifier. And a random draw pitted Bujold against world silver medallist Kim Hye-Song of North Korea. Bujold lost by two points and was done.

"We all train for that moment, and then for it to kind of get taken away for something silly like that. . .," Bujold said. "Everyone knew who should've been (in London). I had worked eight years to get there, it was the first time for women's boxing, we had been pushing for that for years, and then for it just to be taken away so quickly was really frustrating."

Bujold is a huge favourite to win her 10th Canadian flyweight title this week, which will book her a spot in the world championships in Kazakhstan in February. The worlds are an Olympic qualifier once again, but the draw this time will be seeded. She can also book her Rio berth in the continental qualifier in March in Argentina.

Leaving nothing to chance, the 28-year-old moved from Kitchener, Ont., to Toronto just over a year ago to work full-time with Romanian coach Adrian Tudorescu.

On a recent afternoon, Bujold shadow boxed with a photographer, her well-muscled shoulders glistening with sweat. She lives a couple of kilometres from the gritty Atlas Gym, a no-nonsense facility in an industrial mall in north Toronto. Trophies from as back as the '70s line the window ledges.

The walls are plastered with fight posters and photos of Tudorescu's former fighters, including Olympic gold medallist Lennox Lewis and Egerton Marcus, who famously won Olympic silver fighting with a broken hand.

There are inspirational messages. "Without order and discipline there can be no high performance results in training and life," reads one.

Bujold said her move to Toronto has paid off in the ring.

"The skills and tactics and things that he can teach are things I've never been able to learn from another coach," she said of Tudorescu. "Some of it is the way I look at a fight. . .we watch video together, so it's watching things from a different light."

Bujold's Olympic quest received a boost recently when world No. 1-ranked Marlen Esparza of the U.S., the 2014 world champion, lost at the American trials.

There was no love lost between the two. After Bujold beat Esparza in a split decision for Pan American Games gold last summer, Esparza launched into a post-fight rant, saying Bujold was "not a good fighter. She's not any better than the first time I fought her."

Bujold was fighting in Germany when she heard Esparza had lost. She immediately went online to see if it was true.

"I don't really feel bad for her that she lost," Bujold said. "She had her opportunity in 2012, she went to the Olympics, she got a bronze medal," she said. "That definitely opens up doors for me, the fact she's not there, at the continental qualifier I won't have my biggest rival there.

"But I don't take anyone lightly. Every fight I fight at this weight class is a tough fight."