Yeyo takes on Zeferino in round 2 of Contender Series
Team Jamaica’s boxer Nico Yeyo gets his sternest test as a professional tonight when he faces the undefeated number two- ranked Canadian Mayron “The Brazilian Bomber” Zeferino in tonight’s second preliminary fight of the 2018 Wray and Nephew White Overproof Rum Contender Boxing Series, Welterweight Division season, at the Chinese Benevolent Association Auditorium, in Kingston.
The Contender series is scheduled to run for approximately 15 weeks and a battery of 32 boxers in 16 fights will duel until the last man is left standing. The winner will not only take home the Contender title and belt, but also pocket a cool purse of $2 million, while the second, third and fourth-place winners will pull another $500,000, $250,000, and $200,000, respectively.
Some three fights are carded on the night’s programme along with an interlude for some added offbeat entertainment with prizes up for grabs on the evening’s programme which begins at 8:30 pm sharp with two amateur fights, one featuring the impressive Jerone Ennis.
Ennis, a two-time silver medallist in the Schoolboy Boxing Championships held in Guyana, was last year’s Commonwealth Youth Games bronze medallist and 2016 Caribbean gold medallist in the 69kg Class. A product of the Stanley Couch Gym, Ennis will come up against Menelik Russell in the 69kg three-round curtain-raiser.
In the main bout, both boxers did their checks and balances at the doctor’s office yesterday and were passed fit for the five-round caper of three minutes each with Zeferino — with a five and zero win-loss record — tipping the scale at 147 lbs and Yeyo coming in at 150 lbs, with a two and one win-loss record.
Yeyo’s coach Earl “Boom Boom” Foskin also expressed the view that Yeyo is in good shape to be competitive against Zeferino but his earlier bout with the flu virus could have taken away some of his sharpness. That apart “he is in good shape”.
The tri-lingual Canadian “Brazilian Bomber” said in an interview that he will stay long enough in the ring to entertain the Jamaican crowd, but “if the chance is there for a knock-out, then I might just finish it there. But I am here to enjoy myself, the Jamaica hospitality and give boxing fans a treat”.
Regarding his weapons, he said: “I can mix it up from inside and outside. I am an intelligent fighter and can adjust to handle the situation as it develops.”
Yeyo is the winner of 18 fights as an amateur with four defeats, and after the weigh in, said: “I had a touch of the flu virus and could not train properly for a couple of days, but that is behind me now and I am in good fighting shape to be in this contest to give a good account of myself.
“My opponent is probably a bit more experienced boxer than me but I am in this to win it. I want to take it to the very end and after we touch gloves it could be a different ball game because I am in this to win,” Yeyo predicted.