Leroy Brown, general secretary of the Jamaica Boxing Board. - file

Two of Jamaica's most promising professional boxers, Ricardo Planter and Tsetsi Davis, will renew their heated rivalry in the feature bout on tomorrow night's 'Saturday Night Fights' boxing series at the Barbican Beach playing field.

The nine-fight card will also boast a best of Jamaica versus a best of Barbados triple-threat.

The event brings together the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control (JBBC) and title sponsors Institute of Sports (Insport), who are reaffirming their commitment to the sport. The state-run body has committed $260,000 towards the staging of the event.

Also on the card are two additional bouts that will be confirmed later today and three amateur fights featuring some local talent.

Fiercest amateurs

Leroy Brown, general secretary of the JBBC, is pleased with the addition of another card on the local circuit and is looking forward to the much touted clash between Planter and Davis, who have matured from being two of the island's fiercest amateurs to developing professionals.

Said Brown, "It is great that a professional bout is coming back to the local scene. One of the big problems that we have in the sport locally is the lack of promoters and so the board is acting proactively and we are starting small with one professional bout balanced with eight amateur bouts."

"Ricardo Planter has been in the professional scene for a couple of years but Davis only became pro this year and he has a splendid amateur record behind him. They met as amateurs and he so far has been the dominant one and Planter is determined now to turn the scales now that they are professionals," he continued.

First vice-president Stephen Jones was also looking forward to the meet and underlined the JBBC's ambition to continue the growth of the sport locally.

Cold storage

"This event and those to come will help to reconnect our people to the sport, the Jamaican fans will once again be treated to a type of entertainment that has been missing on the local scene for too long. Our goal is to bring boxing back to the forefront and showcase these talented young Jamaicans and Caribbean boxers, our future Olympians and professionals," stated Jones.

Insports executive director, Ian Andrews, who labelled himself an avid supporter of the sport, was satisfied with his organisation's involvement with the event.

Said Andrews: "Boxing is dear to my heart and it has always been. I can't emphasise how much the sport means to me and it really saddened me when there was the talk that boxing had gone into cold storage, so with that in mind and in keeping in line with the new thrust, we felt this was a good opportunity to come on board."