Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

The Jamaica Boxing Board of Control (JBBC) on Thursday unveiled plans for what they hope will be a very active year for the sport, following the announcement of a historic $500,000 sponsorship deal with fast food chain Burger King.

The series of bouts which have been titled the Burger King Amateur Boxing series is set to start on the weekend of January 25-26 with the 'Jamaica Open' and closes with the National Championships in December. The series will include a total of seven bouts, with other events scheduled for February, April, June, August and October.

However, while the attraction of a sponsor is a significant move for the association as it has been somewhere in the region of six years since they have been able to garner any such interest, the sport - once one of the more popular ones in Jamaica - continues to suffer from a serious lack of funding.

With a conservative estimate of somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000 per event, one member of the association claimed a recent event cost close to $500,000 and said the association will be stretched to keep all seven events unless they can garner more support. Board president Williams Tavares-Finson hopes that sort of support can be garnered this year.

"Last year was a tough year for us not only in terms of events. A number of them had to be called off due to natural disasters and then there were the elections," he said.

"We spent most of the time ironing out internal issue, but this year we will be looking to get the sport back into the public eye.

"While we are extremely grateful for the sponsorship received from Burger King, we still have a long way to go, and we are hoping that it will be a start," he added.

Trinidad fighters

The National Open Champion-ship, which will open at the Stanley Couch Gym on the 25th, will also see six fighters from Trinidad involved in the event. The Trinidadian fighters will, however, not be on the card until the event's second day, which will be at Holy Childhood Auditorium.

Local boxers will come from seven gyms across the island. They include Stanley Couch, Stony Hill, Mandeville Boxing Club, Hard Knocks, G.C. Foster, the Jamaica Defence Force and Smokin' Job Walters.

Venue for the other events, the specific dates of which are yet to be finalised, include Ken's Wildflower in Portmore, Job Walters Gym in Savanna-la-Mar and G.C. Foster College in Spanish Town.