A historic face-off between Jamaica and Canada will provide spectacular action in the ring during the seventh staging of the Wray & Nephew Contender boxing series.

Sixteen professional boxers from Jamaica and Canada will vie for the top prize this season, which begins with live televised fights on Wednesday, April 5 at the home of the competition, the Chinese Benevolent Association of Jamaica in St Andrew, airing on

TVJ at 9:30 pm.

Season VII of the popular boxing series was launched on Tuesday, March 21 at J Wray & Nephew Limited’s football field, 234 Spanish Town Road in Kingston. There, the organisers announced Krystal Tomlinson as the new host for the competition and that boxers from Canada will compete against Jamaica, unlike last season when Jamaicans competed against boxers from the United States.

Local boxers Ramel Lewis, Richard Holmes, Devon Moncrieffe, Tsetsi Davis, Nico Yeyo, Sakima Mullings, Ricardo Planter and Gregory Miller will represent Jamaica.

Ryan Young, Frank Cotroni, Dave Leblond, Mike Breton, Larone Whyte, Phil Rose, Winston Matthews and Ryan Wagner will represent Team Canada.

Pietro Gramegna, marketing manager, J Wray & Nephew Limited, said that there are historical firsts to this year’s competition.

“Prior to the launch of the Wray & Nephew Contender, we made history by journeying to Colonel Cove in St Thomas, Island Village in St Ann, and Treasure Beach in St Elizabeth where we hosted three exciting Road to Contender pre-launch shows for the very first time. Traditionally, live fights were held only in Kingston, but we believed it was time to take the action to patrons in all three counties of Jamaica. All matches held outside of Kingston were successful and over $400,000 in cash and prizes were given to the boxers and patrons,” Gramegna said.

He added that Wray & Nephew is also creating history by partnering with another iconic Jamaican brand, Ting, for their ‘Wraytastic’ mixed drink offerings this season,

The opening fight for Season 7 – Best of the Best will feature 2014 Wray & Nephew Contender Champ, Sakima Mullings versus Canada’s Winston Mathews next Wednesday at 9:30 pm.

The winner of this season’s Wray & Nephew Contender will receive a cash prize of $2,000,000. While the runner-up will receive $500,000, the third-place winner will receive $250,000 and the fourth-place winner will receive $200,000.

Season seven’s matches will be held at the Chinese Benevolent Association on Wednesdays, airing live exclusively on

TVJ at 9:30 pm.