Jamaica's Jermaine Bowen, representing the Green Team, will exchange punches with the Yellow Team's representative, Duke Brooks, from Trinidad and Tobago, tonight at the Chinese Benevolent Association auditorium on Old Hope Road as the 'Wray & Nephew Middleweight 2015 Contender' series moves into the third week of competition.
There will be two amateur bouts to get the night started and the first one will be at 8:30.
The action in the Contender series will start at 9:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live by TVJ. The series is sanctioned by the Jamaica Boxing Board, and Wray & Nephew is the main sponsor, while Schweppes and TVJ are associate sponsors.
Two boxers, Kemahl Russell from Jamaica, and Derick Richmond from Guyana, have moved into the quarter-finals of the knockout competition, which has six boxers from Jamaica and six from other Caribbean territories vying for the 2015 title and cash prizes. The winner of the competition takes home $2 million, the prize for second place is $500,000; third, $250,000; and fourth, $200,000.
Russell kicked things off the first week with a knockout victory over Kevin Placide from Trinidad and Tobago. Last week, Richmond from Guyana outpointed Gregory Miller from Jamaica over six rounds.
The combatants tonight are relatively new to professional boxing. Bowen has had only two fights as a professional, winning one and losing the other, while Brooks, who was once an experienced kickboxer, has transitioned into boxing and is making his professional debut.
The 24-year-old Bowen stands at 5'11", while Brooks, also 24 years old, is six feet tall. Both boxers weigh in at 160 pounds.
Bowen is aggressive and usually comes in behind a good jab to challenge his opponents. Brooks is, however, an unknown quantity. He did some amateur boxing, spent time as a kickboxer and has now made the move to boxing. It will, therefore, be a matter of waiting to see how the drama unfolds tonight.