‘Frog’ Holmes hops into Contender final
Team Jamaica’s Richard “Frog” Holmes marched into the Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum Contender Boxing Series final by posting a split decision victory over his Canadian counterpart Dave Leblond at the Chinese Benevolent Association hall on Wednesday night.
The match saw action from the opening bell to the final gong, with both boxers giving as much as they got. But in the end the judges scored the fight in favour of the Jamaican, pushing him to his third final in seven years.
Judge Lindell Allen scored the seven-round bout 67-66 in favour of Leblond, while Laurence Neufville and David Barber scored it 69-63 and 67-66, respectively, for Holmes.
Holmes bow awaits the winner the of the Devon “Concrete” Moncriffe versus Ricardo “Magic Man” Salas clash from the other semi-final fight.
At the end of the fight, winner “Frog” Holmes shared some of the tactics employed in the fight, particularly the introduction of an uppercut.
“This uppercut is my baby… this uppercut is thrown when needed. Tonight it was needed and you will see a lot more of it,” he said..
With the semi-final out of the way, the Jamaica Holmes has turned his sights on the ultimate prize.
“As I said before, the rival I was looking for to meet in the final is not here… but even so, I am here to win this title. I am here to win it,” Holmes emphasised.
Pointing to the fact that his conditioning looked a bit improved above that of his last fight, Holmes replied: “Yes, my coach and myself we are working towards getting it right for the final, but for the moment if I have to go seven rounds, I shall be going seven rounds.”
Leblond’s manager Samuel Planter, speaking on behalf of his fighter who does not speak English fluently, said he was not let down by his charge.
“No, I can never be disappointed with either performances… I can never be disappointed. All that I know is that we may need a few more tools [so] we are going back to the drawing board,” Planter said.