AXE, the world renown deodorant and body spray enterprise, was announced as the new sponsor for the 2012 National Amateur Boxing Championships, which will take place this Friday and Saturday at the Stanley Couch gym in Kingston starting at 6:00 pm each day.

The announcement was made at the launch of the championships at the Sports Development Foundation (SDF) office yesterday.

Nine gyms, including defending champions and host (Stanley Couch) will battle to be this year’s champions and they will be competing against main rivals Bruising gym and Hardknocks, along with the established gyms such as Heavy Metal, Tiger (formerly G4s), Boys’ Town, Sugar Olympic, G C Foster and newcomers, Wyndham.

Over 70 boxers will compete to be crowned local amateur champions from the bantamweight class to the super heavyweight category, and this year’s championships will also include its first female bout.

According to Jamaica Boxing Board president, Stephen ‘Bomber’ Jones, Axe’s involvement has relieved the board of some of the pressure it would have incurred without them and he believes it will enable them to have a better organised championship this year.

“This could not happen without the sponsorship… and with Axe coming on board it took a lot of pressure off us, because the funding

helps you to operate a more professional environment.

“So we are very appreciative to Unilever and the Axe brand,” he said.

However, he declared that the main goal of the championships this year, which will also include British-based fighter (Reece Shagouri), was to select and prepare Jamaica’s boxers for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

“We want a clique of boxers that we can work with for the next four years and set a trend where the others who might not be up to standard at that moment, will still be diligent, practise and develop their levels.

“Because the national championships is where we are going to select from to see how best we can represent Jamaica internationally, so we need to go to the Commonwealth Games and the PanAm Games, but the goal is to go to Brazil 2016 and I have no doubt that we’ll get there,” he added.

Meanwhile, Unilever’s Caribbean agent for Axe, Karlene Gregory, said Axe is in the process of promoting its first female brand (Axe Anarchy for women) and with the present high that boxing is riding, she believes the association should be mutually beneficial to both parties.

“This is brand new… and this is the first female Axe we’ve ever had, so we saw it fitting to come on board and support the boxing,” she said.

Jones also said that with Nicholas ‘Axeman’ Walters’s recent WBA featherweight title success, he expects an even greater interest in this year’s championships.

“Nicholas opened the door for us to walk through… so what we need to do now is push and make sure that our boxers and our brand is properly publicised,” he said.