Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Jamaica is prime for boxing – JBB

Published:Saturday | November 9, 2019 | 12:00 AMLeroy Brown/Gleaner Writer
Jamaica Boxing Board (JBB) President Stephen ‘Bomber’ Jones (left) and Senior Adviser to the Ministry of Sport Allie McNab at Sabina Park on Thursday, at the launch of the JBB’s upcoming fight night set for the same venue next Saturday.
Jamaica’s Toriano Nicholas (left) faces American Carlos Dixon in the fifth bout at the WBC Gloves Over Guns Fight held at the Ambassador Theatre in Trench Town, Kingston, on Saturday, July 13, 2019. Nicholas has been named on the card of the Jamaica Boxing Board’s next fight night to be held at Sabina Park on Saturday, November 16.
1
2

International boxing will return to Jamaica next Saturday, November 16, when American-based Uprising Promotions, in collaboration with local promoting company Creative Sport and Entertainment, put on a five-fight card featuring two title fights, at Sabina Park.

In making the announcement at the fight venue on Thursday, Jamaica Boxing Board President Stephen ‘Bomber’ Jones said, “We at the Jamaica Boxing Board have a vision that Jamaica can be a choice venue for international boxing, and the card on November 16 will be the first in a series of shows that will take place over the next 12 months.”

Sports tourism, he said further, “can earn Jamaica millions of dollars, and we are therefore going to do our part to make this fight card successful, and aim at making Jamaica a choice destination for world title fights in the future”.

The international bouts on the card will see Russian heavyweight Vladimar Tereskin, who fought here in July, going against Francisco Silvens from the Dominican Republic over 10 rounds; Eduardo Cordovez from Venezuela going against another Russian, Yurik Mamedov, for the World Boxing Association super lightweight Fedecaribe title; and Carlos Dixon from the USA fighting Edison Torres from Venezuela, for the World Boxing Council (WBC) Youth World Super featherweight title.

There will be two other professional fights, one of which will feature Jamaican lightweight boxers Toriano Nicholas and Martin Anderson. Boxers from the Boxing Board’s Gloves over Guns programme will also engage in five amateur bouts. Two female amateur boxers, Lisa Frazer and Britney McFarlane, are also scheduled to appear.

The fight card has the blessing of Sports Minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, who, in remarks read on her behalf by her senior adviser, Allie McNab, said that “the event being launched represents the opening round of a bout for the continued growth of boxing in Jamaica”. She also labelled the event as “a straight right in the fight against crime and violence in the inner-city communities in Jamaica”.

She went on to say that her ministry believed that it should support the initiative “because it is good for the development of sport and community development in Jamaica”, and was showing this support “not just by words, but by making a monetary contribution to the event.”