BRYAN ... I told you I'm a Jamaican, wherever I fight I carry my black, green and gold, straight

For the colourful-talking Jamaican cruiserweight boxer Lloyd "Jabba" Bryan, the Jamaican adage holds true: "Nowhere no betta dan yaad".

The current holder of the North American Boxing Council (NABC) cruiserweight belt was in the island to recharge his batteries and get ready for his next sojourn into the squared circle. Bryan celebrated his birthday recently and spent the time hanging out with the sports team at IRIE FM on their What's the score' talk show, where he, as per usual, entertained with his own brand of "colour" talk.

"Jamaica is my home, Jamaica is where I get my energy, Jamaica is where I get my purity and that real vibes, so whenever I need to re-energise I gotta come a yaad," Bryan said.

Asked if when he fights he wears the Jamaican colours, in a stunned manner, "Jabba" answered: "What! I told you I'm a Jamaican, wherever I fight I carry my black, green and gold, straight."

So what about a favourite song to enter the ring? "Yeah man, let me tell you for my last fight I went in with this guy, a deep guy, he is in prison now, but he is a vibes man, ahh what's his name ... Jah Cure that's the man."

Jabba continued: "Behind these prison walls, yu ever hear that song, when they played at my last fight I said man I am gonna do this." Unfortunately they seemed to have done it to him as the St Mary-born boxer didn't make it past the first round, beaten by Henry "Sugar Poo" Buchanan in the cruiserweight bout for the Washington, Virginia and Maryland tri-state title in Washington DC.

A win for Bryan would have been a somewhat perfect continuation to a comeback story that started after a five-year layoff and would have upped his credentials as a big title challenger.

The fight was originally scheduled to be a light heavyweight battle, but was switched to cruiserweight because Buchanan failed to make the contracted 177 pounds. That paid off in one respect for Bryan, who instead of pulling out or forcing Buchanan to lose two-and-a-half pounds, opted to take the extra money that came from his opponent being fined for failing to make weight.

That loss came a couple of months after Bryan had walked back into the ring to lift the NABC title in a fight where he was to have been the sacrificial lamb. It also happened after he did succumb as the lamb to the slaughter to top-gun Steve Cunningham. After all that, then it is pretty clear why he needs to come home, clear his head, hug his kids and recharge for the rumble and tumble of life in the gym and ring.

As a matter of fact, so much did Bryan need the break that he preferred to sever his contract than have his trainer tell him he can't take the trip.

Since he departed the shores of Jamaica to ply his trade elsewhere in search of greener pasture, he has been up against it many times, but none other than his middleweight world title shot against Sven Ottke in Germany. He has and continues to tell the story of how he was robbed of a fair shot at the world title.

"To be honest, I don't know what they did to me... they drugged me," Bryan claimed. "I went over to Germany in 2000 to fight for the world title, it was a great opportunity, the opportunity I always waited for all my life, all my career. When I reached in Germany I left from the airport to my hotel room then straight to the gym despite the jetlag, but me and my trainer said we weren't going to telegraph anything, we would save everything for the fight. So I'm in the ring playing with the guy they gave me to spar with, but this guy was getting off, he wasn't playing, I was playing, my trainer didn't like it and he said, 'Jabba stop playing go get him', but I said 'no', this is not the man I came to fight wait 'til fight night I show what I got."

Jabba added that his trainer insisted that he get on with it and he knocked the sparring partner out. Mistake number one. All the love that he got upon arrival diminished rapidly, no more autographs and royal treatment, "everything changed after. I started to feel dazed, started to feel weak, and I'm telling my people something ain't right, something going on with my body, but they said 'no, you just nervous and jetlagged'."

His handlers didn't agree and within days he broke wind in the elevator. "Everybody's breath had to stop. So now I asked you all believe me now, but they still kept saying it was something with the food."

Bryan then requested for the fight to be called off so he could come home to Jamaica and recoup. "Anyway at the end of the day they didn't believe so I went into the fight and I put it in God's hands, so here I am in the ring three national anthems playing and two of them (the American and Jamaican) for Jabba Bryan. I said to God this is the moment, give me it now, I don't care if you take it back just gimme now.
Anyway I guess the drugs took away from me. I went the distance didn't get beat up but lost on points. I wasn't Jabba."
The Jamaican was so disappointed that he retired from the sport.

That episode is behind him now and his career in the ring is entering its twilight years, so now he is trying to milk what he can from the game. He also has his sights set on retirement. "Man, I'm an investor, I like investments, so that's what I am going to do when I finally pack it in."

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World