Jamaican boxer Kemahl Russell hammered Trinidad and Tobago journeyman boxer Kevin ‘The Gaad’ Placide into submission with a third-round knockout in the six-round middleweight fracas to launch his Wray and Nephew White Overproof Rum Contender Series career on a positive note at the Chinese Benevolent Association auditorium on Wednesday night.

The match was highly entertaining from a spectator’s point of view as the Jamaican cruised to an easy victory.

Placide went to the canvas so often without being seriously hit that it was clear the 40-year-old Port of Spain native was a long way past his best.

When he was at his “best”, he had 13 wins, six losses and a draw in 20 previous fights.

Placide began the encounter by bobbing and weaving his way around the ring on wobbly legs and hit the canvas repeatedly in each of the three rounds.

He went down once too often in the third round, and failing to beat the count, as he did in two previous knockdowns, was counted out at 2:50 minutes by the referee. Not even Russell could give a good reason for his easy win. “I really can’t say, as Placide did not offer much by way of competition. And that, along with my wrist being wrapped a bit too tight, prevented me from throwing any really effective punches and knock him out. But with youth and fitness in my favour I was able to use that on him and came out on top,” Russell said.

Placide, in explaining his poor response, said “biology crept up on me”.

“But he (Russell) comes and throws big telegraphic punches that you can see and evade a lot of times. However, when I don’t have the capacity to apply myself then that in itself led to what transpired here tonight,” Placide conceded.