Pros to fight for big bucks in lucrative local series

Leroy Brown, Gleaner Writer

Professional boxing will make a dramatic return to the local scene shortly, with the staging of a reality series on Television Jamaica (TVJ), starting next week Wednesday, December 22.

The show - to be broadcast at 9:30 p.m. each Wednesday - will be called 'The Wray and Nephew Contender' and will run for 15 weeks, with J. Wray and Nephew, Claro and TVJ combining as sponsors.

A fight series featuring 16 local professional boxers vying for the middleweight boxing title of Jamaica and purse money of nearly $2 million, will be broadcast on the show.

The winner of the series will earn $1 million, the runner-up $500,000, third-place $250,000 and fourth $200,000.

Promoters of the show, MJK Productions, led by Mark Kenny, have gained the full backing of the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control (JBBC), and the series will be supervised as a normal boxing card each week.

The rules of the board will be in place and the winner will be the middleweight boxing champion of Jamaica.

Two teams

Boxers will be divided into two teams of eight, representing Yellow and Green teams.

Members of the Yellow Team representing rural Jamaica and led by Hard Knocks gym's coach, Andrew Boland, are: Tsetsi Davis, Martin Anderson, Lloyd Smith, Kevin Hylton, Patrick Miller, Glenroy Beckford, Rikardo Smith, and Patrick Taylor.

Those on the Green Team representing urban Jamaica and led by Bruising Gym's coach, Carl Grant, are: Sakima Mullings, Donovan Campbell, Devon Moncrieffe, Ian Smith, Anthony Osbourne, Terron Leslie, Ricardo Planter, and Raymond Gordon.

Apart from boxing, the teams will, over the 15-week period, also engage in physical challenges which will provide added interest for spectators. These activities, as well as personal portraits of the fighters, will be televised each week before the live boxing match takes place.

The team that wins the weekly challenge will nominate the boxer who will fight that week, as well as choose his opponent from the other camp. Those two boxers will fight on the Wednesday, with the winner staying in the competition, and the loser dropping out.

There will be four stages in the competition. In the first stage, there will be eight fights over six rounds each, after which eight boxers will be left in the competition. In the second stage, the fights will be over eight rounds, and at the end of that stage, four fighters will remain.

Third stage

In the third stage, there will be two fights of 10 rounds each, and the winners will meet in the grand finale, also over 10 rounds.

Some of the boxers participating such as Anthony Osbourne, Ian Smith, Ricardo Planter, Lloyd Smith, Donovan Campbell, and Glenroy Beckford, have been professionals for some time.

There are others, however, who have recently turned professionals after stellar amateur careers. Tsetsi Davis, Sakima Mullings and Rikardo Smith, for example, had long and rewarding amateur careers and they are bringing this vast amateur experience to the ring as professionals.

The momentum has been building for several months, and at the ceremony to launch the series on Tuesday night, at the headquarters of sponsors J. Wray and Nephew Ltd, the boxers all stated that they were in great condition and were ready for the action to start.