With the preliminaries out of the way, the hunt for semi-final places in the 2016 Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum Contender Boxing Series begins at the Chinese Benevolent Association Auditorium tonight starting at approximately 9:30.

Eight of the 16 boxers who opened the campaign remain in the series and will vie for a place in the semi-final and final over the next few weeks to win the major share of the $3,000,000 purse up for grabs with the last man standing pocketing two thirds of the sum on offer.

The first round of the quarters will be open by the seasoned Contender campaigner Ramel Lewis against the new kid on the block, Michael ‘The Wasp’ Gardner.

Lewis returned to the fight scene for the first time this season following a two-year hiatus. No stranger to reaching the latter stages of the contest having been to the final in 2012, the semi-final 2013 and a quarter-final stop in 2014, the tangle with ‘The Wasp’ in tonight’s fight looks to be a mouth-watering affair.

Lewis returned to his old stomping ground a few weeks ago and bombed his way to fourth round TKO victory against his American challenger Fard ‘The Messenger’ Muhammad to set up the clash with Gardner. In reaching this stage of the series, Gardner, a former top Jamaica amateur middleweight boxer, knocked out his American counterpart Jose L Guzman of Team USA in one minute 22 seconds of the second round of the five-round bout to book his spot.

Since then, both boxers have been hard at work preparing religiously for any eventuality, and by extension, much tougher assignments at their respective training gyms.

Gardner conducts his training sessions under the watchful eyes of his new mentors Castro Brown and Kemahl Russell at the Stanley Couch Gym, while Lewis is being guided for his re-entry into the series by former Contender winner Ricardo Smith and Chris Brown at Emotion Gym.

The normally reticent Lewis did not say much, though he offered: “I have a job to do, so what is expected of me is to just get in there (the ring) get the job done and move on to the other stages.”

Gardner, whose body gives off a rippling effect, said: “I am much better prepared for this fight than I was for my debut fight. and I am 99.9 per cent mentally and physically ready for this fight. It now leaves for me to get into the ring and get the job done.”

Although no fight is easy, both boxers did not expect their opening fights to be as taxing as at the quarter-final stage and beyond and are not leaving anything to chance.