Another highly anticipated bout in the preliminary stages leading up to the 2013 Wray & Nephew Contender Middleweight title fight again ended prematurely at the Chinese Benevolent Association on Wednesday night.

Scheduled for six rounds, referee Barrington Graham at 1:25 minutes of the fifth round stopped the contest, fouled out Glenroy Beckford for persistent holding and declared opponent Phillip Reittie the winner.

During the first four rounds, both boxer landed haymakers but were able to recover sufficiently to continue.

Beckford had Reittie groggy in the first round after tagging him with a good right, but failed to follow through and the journeyman Reittie pulled himself together and came right back with some solid punches of his own that had Beckford holding on for dear life.

And from all indications, Beckford would have been knocked off his feet had he not reverted to his folding tactic.

Beckford, trained by Andrew Boland at his Hard Knocks Gym and fighting on the Yellow Team, is a repeated offender of this act and has lost a number of his fights through the very same indiscretion.

Beckford said that he was disappointed with the decision to stop the brawl as he was using the holding tactic as a means of nullifying Riettie’s stinging attack that had caught him a couple of times flush on the button.

Trainer Boland did not agree with his fighter’s explanation for the indiscretion and said: “When the fans pay to attend a fight they expect to see good wholesome action with fists involved. That is what they paid for and should get their money’s worth.”

Boland’s Yellow Team is three from three down but has promised to provide greater resilience from the rest of the fighters under his care come next fight night. “The best is yet to come. Starting next Wednesday some of my best fighters will take to the ring,” said the colourful trainer.

Declared winner Reittie, trained by Carl Grant at the Bruising Gym and fighting on the Green Team, accepted the victory. “I was disappointed in my performance. I just could not get to express myself. My opponent kept holding on which frustrated every effort to get my fight plan going,” he said.

Another five fights remain in stage one of the preliminary rounds with Tsetsi Davis, Kevin Hylton, Jermaine Bowen, Dean Palmer and Devon Moncrieff to appear for Hard Knocks Gym. Appearing for Bruising Gym will be Derrick Spencer, Alan Cann, Marvin McKay, Everton Eccleston and Miguel Ray who will appear for Bruising Gym.

Stage two of the contest will then whittle down to four fights of also six rounds each.

Sixteen professional boxers are competiting for a share of nearly $2,000,00 in prizes.

The winner will receive $1,000,000 to go along with the titles of Jamaica’s Ultimate Middleweight Boxer and the Wray & Nephew Contender, while the runner-up will pocket $500,000. Further sums of $250,000 and $200,000 will go the third and fourth places, respectively.