‘Big 12’ Brown takes Brompton Cup

RICARDO ‘BIG 12’ Brown, Jamaica’s superheavyweight boxing champion, won another international medal on Sunday night in Ontario, Canada. He took the gold in the Brompton Cup competition. This year, 500 boxers from five countries, including Jamaica, and seven Canadian provinces, participated in the three-day tournament.

Brown, who is one of Jamaica’s best hopes for a medal in the Tokyo Olympics in July, is training and competing in Canada before the Olympic qualifying tournament in Argentina next month. He is one of the few superheavyweights in Jamaica and, is therefore, unable to get the sparring and competition that he needs to make progress. The Jamaica Boxing Board, assisted by the Jamaica Olympic Association and Dewith’s Boxing Studio, has made this possible. Dewith’s Boxing Studio in Ontario is run by Jamaican Dewith Frazer, whose son, Joshua, is another Olympic hopeful. Frazer is personally supervising Brown’s training.

On the first day of competition, Brown met Kemel Tejeda and won by unanimous decision. In the semi-final the next day, he overwhelmed Guillame Lortie-Bourgeois. He attacked his opponent from the opening bell and was so dominant that the referee stopped the bout in the first round.

In the final, he defeated the top Canadian superheavyweight Jerome Feujio on points after three exciting rounds. Brown told The Gleaner that he was very pleased with his performance, and had high praise for his trainer, whom he said gave him valuable advice during the competition.

In the first fight for example, he said, “I was anxious. My opponent threw a lot of punches and I got wild trying to match him. I missed a lot, and during the break, coach Dewith settled me down and I was alright after that, using my jabs and hooks to good advantage. I followed his instructions and won comfortably.” He said that he was very confident going into the final, and although it was a competitive bout, he was dominant and took a unanimous decision. Frazer had high praise for Brown, and said that he was very pleased with the progress he has made over the past two months.

“He is improving every day and is a much better boxer now than when he came to Canada,” he said.