Sun | May 19, 2024

Brown, Frazer stepping up to professional rank

Published:Sunday | November 14, 2021 | 12:09 AMLeroy Brown - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Jamaica’s Ricardo Brown competing in the men’s super heavy +91kg preliminaries at the Tokyo Olympics at Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
Gladstone Taylor
Jamaica’s Ricardo Brown competing in the men’s super heavy +91kg preliminaries at the Tokyo Olympics at Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo, Japan.

TWO OF Jamaica’s senior amateur boxers, super heavyweight Ricardo Brown and junior middleweight Joshua Frazer, have decided to enter the professional ranks soon.

Brown and Frazer told The Sunday Gleaner on Friday that they have signed promotional contracts with Canadian promoting company, United Promotions, whose principals Tyler Buxton and Don McDonald are well known in local boxing circles, having provided boxers in the past for the Wray & Nephew Contender series.

Frazer will have his first fight on December 4 in his home town, Brampton, Ontario.

Brown, who has been based in Canada for the past two years, said that he will not be fighting until some time next year and would really like to make his pro debut in Jamaica. He said that he is hoping that by early next year the COVID-19 protocols in Jamaica will allow for this to happen.

TRAINED BY DEWITH FRAZER

Both boxers are trained by Dewith Frazer, a Jamaican who left here as a teenager but has still held on to his Jamaican roots. He represented Jamaica at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles and reached the quarter-finals. He has run a very successful gym in Canada for many years and has produced many successful boxers, including his son, Joshua, who has won titles in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Two years ago, Dewith invited Brown to train with him in Canada because he was unable to get anyone his size to work with in Jamaica. The partnership produced a bronze medal at the last Pan American Games.

Frazer was Brown’s trainer at the recently concluded World Championships, in Belgrade, Serbia. Brown drew a first-round bye and then met Russian Mark Petrovski in the second round of competition. This turned out to be a bruising affair that ended with the Russian winning two rounds to one.

The result was a controversial one, as the Russian was accused of holding for the duration of the fight. He received a “first-round warning” for this, but none after that, said coach Frazer.

The Jamaican camp protested the decision, but it was not granted. The Russian went on to win the gold medal in the super heavyweight division and it was generally conceded that his fight against Brown was his toughest.