"Let's Go Carolling"
Monday, March 9th 2018
The morning was cool and the sunrise was grey and dim. Mom, Coach Dewith (Dad), and I all finished packing up together, tossed a few last-minute items in our bags and got ourselves ready to go. Just before heading to Pearson, I poured a cup of Black tea as is my routine. After my tea, it was time to go and Mom drove Dad and me to the airport.
We were off to Tijuana, Mexico to fight in the Central American Caribbean games. Competing in these games allowed me to qualify for CAC (Central-American Caribbean) Games, which will be hosted in Columbia later this year.
It was a long travel day. As an amateur boxer, every penny counts so that means picking flights that tend to have a few more stops and fly funny routes getting from A to B. It was a bit of a drag to have such a long travel day, but it did give me a lot of one-on-one time with my Dad and Coach. About 10 hours later after a couple layovers in New York and in Monterrey, Mexico, we safely arrived in Tijuana and it was time for business.
In any tournament, step one is to make weight. I’m a natural junior welterweight as a Pro but for now, I must make the 69 KG welterweight class.
Although I’m a Canadian born and raised, I’ve taken my talents across to the island of Jamaica, where I attended school for a few years as a boy and now I fight and represent Jamaica as their Elite 69 KG male a decade later. I'll write about that later in case you didn't know, but I'm now the Jamaican National Champion in my weight class.
There's a lot of waiting in boxing! Coach and I sat in the lobby of the Grand Hotel Resort and Casino until all weigh-ins were completed. Next, the draw for the tournament is selected. They take all the different countries and weight categories and draw who fights who. It's completely random and you don't know who you're going to fight until these draws take place. You could open the first bout of the tournament or end up not fighting until the third day in some cases.
It was my turn to learn my opponent and when the names were called, I heard "Carol Hinds from the Bahamas". Hinds has been a resident of Cuba for the past seven years and is currently ranked number three in the world!
Lucky me, it’s so funny how things pan-out. Some call it destiny, other simply luck. I had been hearing about this guy from the Bahamas for weeks prior to leaving Canada, that wasn’t going to stop me now.
Day one of the tournament, I was ready to go win another top-ranked fight. I'm not sure if it was me fending off the effects of Jet-lag or possibly thinking about my old Teammates from Team Canada, but I had to clear my mind as it was time to start a good future as a member Team Jamaica. Even more so I was ready to become another champion in this New Level!
Of world ranked competitors, I had drawn the No.3 boxer in the world. I was so happy to be in this position. Feeling no grave pressure other than a common thought that most elite athletes may know the feeling of not wanting to underperform. When you're given the chance to fight against #3, you rise to the occasion. But today is different.
I lost my fight against Carol Hinds in a split decision 2-1.
A Split Decision in boxing means it was close. Two judges gave the fight to Hinds and one gave it to me.
It's possible the fight could have been lost weeks before. The last 2 months have been an incredibly stressful time for me personally which I will share more about with you when the time right. I visualized victory in myself but it didn't happen this time. I didn’t perform as I trained and directed nor planned to. Only a fighter knows this could have been cause days prior to landing in Mexico- possible a month ago when arbitration started with Team Canada or the one thing I personally hated most my whole life (being asked the same thing daily). Truth is none of that matters in the ring. I learned that I slipped my focus, slipped my heart & let someone take my food off my plate. I wasn’t hungry enough. I didn’t deserve it enough. Or so I tell myself.
Joshua Frazer is who I am, I am not easily broken yet still, I take daily steps striving to be the best boxer in the world, one of the greats in the history books but I was defeated by a person I will see again in July at the CAC. Even with the defeat, I have qualified to attend the South American tournament and you can bet I'll be ready.
Time won’t repeat itself like this again, but I’ve learned and grown from this.
We're all born to Win.
JF