Brown, Defreitas off to Pan-Am boxing

Two Jamaican boxers, super heavyweight Ricardo Brown and lightweight Shiloh Defreitas, have qualified for the Pan American Games to be held in Lima, Peru, from July 26 to August 11.

The duo booked their spots at the qualifying ­tournament for the Americas held in Managua, Nicaragua, from April 2-11.

A third boxer, welterweight Joshua Frazer, based in Canada, made the cut initially, as boxer No. 8 on the list, but was bounced out of the competition, when Peru, the host country, used one of its allotted picks to take his place.

Ironically, Frazer was Jamaica’s most successful boxer at the tournament, as he won two bouts to get to the quarter-finals. His weight class had 23 entrants, which meant that unless he drew a bye, he had to win at least two bouts to make the qualifying eight.

In his first bout, he scored an exciting victory over Abraham Mora of Costa Rica, who had beaten him before in another tournament. That bout was stopped at 2 minutes 55 seconds of the second round. In his next bout, he was challenged by Carl Hield of the Bahamas and won that bout on points, by ­unanimous decision.

In his next bout, Frazer met the No. 2-seeded boxer in the competition, Venezuela’s Gabriel Maestre, and showing the effects of boxing three consecutive days, he lost on points. He nevertheless ended up in the No. 8 spot on the qualifying list, but was bumped by the Peruvian welterweight.

Defreitas, who boxes out of England, looked good in his first encounter, as he defeated Yonathan Contreras of Guatemala on points. In his second bout, he came up against a former professional boxer, Jonathan Romero of Colombia. He won the first round of this encounter, but Romero used his vast experience to take the next two rounds and a unanimous decision.

Super heavyweight Brown received a first-round bye that took him into the qualifying eight. He next came up against the very experienced American Richard Torrez, and lost on points after three bruising rounds. Although Torrez won, he was so banged up by Brown, that he could not fight again. He however qualified and also secured a bronze medal.

The other Jamaican boxer, light heavyweight Ian Darby, went out of the competition early, as he lost to Mexican Rogelio Romero on points.