The Contender series starts on Wednesday

Leroy Brown, Gleaner Writer

Everything is in place for the start of the televised boxing series 'The Wray and Nephew Contender' on Wednesday, January 5. The 15-week boxing competition should have started on December 22, 2010, but because of the Christmas rush, essential equipment for the show that came in from overseas, could not be cleared in time.

Word from Mark Kenny, the executive producer of the series, is that "everything is now here and is cleared and we will definitely be starting on January 5". The Contender boxing series will see 16 professional boxers fighting for prize money totalling J$1, 950, 000. First prize is One million dollars, second prize J$500,000, third prize J$250, 000 and fourth prize J$200, 000.

Live action will take place at the Chinese Benevolent Association on Old Hope Road and will be broadcast on TVJ at 9.30 each Wednesday night for one hour. There will be two teams of eight boxers each, a Yellow team and a Green team, and every week they will engage in physical challenges prior to the boxing contest. The team that wins that week's physical challenge will select the boxer its nominee will fight that week.

In the first stage of the competition the boxers will fight over six rounds, in the second round they will step up to eight rounds and the semi-final and final fights will be over 10 rounds each.

The boxing matches will be supervised by the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control, under whose competition rules they will take place. The winner will also be regarded as the middleweight boxing champion of Jamaica.