Leroy Brown, Gleaner Writer

The grand launch of the Wray & Nephew Contender 2013 show will take place this afternoon at the television studios of Television Jamaica (TVJ) at Lyndhurst Road in Kingston. It will be broadcast live, starting at 1 p.m.

Promoters will be MJK Productions, led by Mark Kenny. Wray & Nephew will be the name sponsors and the promotion is approved by the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control.

Competition will start on Wednesday, March 6, and will be broadcast live on Television Jamaica each Wednesday night. The finals have been set for June 12. The venue will again be the Chinese Benevolent Association auditorium on Old Hope Road, and the promoters have stated that the arrangements this year "will again be first-class". They have also promised that there will be added entertainment features for spectators who attend the weekly show.

inaugural year

The contest this year will be in the middleweight division, the same as in the inaugural year, 2011, and the 16 boxers who have been selected will be introduced to the public today. There will be a mixture of old and new faces, and one of the boxers will be a Canada-based Jamaican, who arrived in the island last week, and has been in training since then at the Bruising Gym in Stony Hill.

The boxers have again been divided into two eight-man teams, Yellow and Green, the primary colours of the main sponsors, for the first stage of the competition, and they will compete each week in challenges arranged by the promoters. The team that wins the challenge each week will have the right to choose the boxer who will fight for their team that week, as well as his opponent. The pattern has been for the winning team to match a favoured boxer against a lesser light from the opposing team, so winning the challenge is a great advantage.

At the end of the first stage, the team concept will be abandoned and the eight remaining boxers will be seeded, and a draw will then take place to make the matchups. The winner of the competition will be named the Wray & Nephew Middleweight Contender 2013 and take home one million dollars. The second-place contestant will earn $500,000, third place $250,000 and fourth $200,000.