WRAY and Nephew’s fifth season of its White Overproof Rum Contender Boxing Series returns to the Chinese Benevolent Association Auditorium (CBA) tonight.

The season had its gala opening at a glitzy affair on Thursday, March 5 on Dominica Drive where the announcement was made that last year’s runner-up, Tsetsi Davis, will face Guyanese, New York-based fighter Jermin King in tonight’s opening middleweight eliminator over six rounds.

At 37 years old Davis stands at 5’8″ with a ring record of 12 wins, four draws and no loss from 16 fights. King, aged 28, stands at 5′ 11″ with a ring record of three wins, three losses and one draw from seven fights.

Sixteen professional boxers from Jamaica and the Caribbean will compete in the 2015 Series for a share of nearly $3 million. The final man left standing or ahead on points after the gong goes will pocket a whopping $2 million to go with the coveted title of Jamaica’s Ultimate Middleweight Contender.

The runner-up will receive $500,000, third will take home $250,000 and the fourth place finisher will pocket $200,000.

In an attempt to maintain that established competitive and entertaining standards that the Contender Series has set among regional boxers, the promoters of the series in conjunction with the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control (JBBC), have scouted Jamaica and the wider English-speaking Caribbean to acquire the services of 16 of the top available boxing middleweights in the region, to trade punches.

As is the custom, the boxers are divided into teams of eight with Jamaica designated as the Green Team and the Caribbean, the Yellow Team.

The 16 fighters will box over four stages in a process of elimination to reach the final. At stage one eight fights will be carded to go over six rounds each. At stage two there will be four fights again to go over a similar distance of six rounds. At the third and penultimate stage of the series four fighters will engage in a do-or-die semi-final showdown to determine who will contest the Contender final over 10 rounds with the winner walking away with the major prizes.

Team Jamaica will be conditioned by Carl Grant, while Andrew Boland will prepare Team Caribbean.

Boxers representing Team Jamaica are Kevin Hylton, Jermaine Bowen, Richard Holmes, Devon Moncriffe, Kemahl Russell, Gregory Miller, Ricardo Planter and Tsetsi Davis. Team Caribbean will be represented by Kevin Placide, Edmond Decion, Duke Brooks, Jermin King, Charwin Estwick, Courtney Pennington, Derick Richman, and Winston Pompey.