The Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum Contender Boxing Series returned for its sixth season, but it did get going with a bang as fans had anticipated.

Instead, hundreds of spectators who turned up at the Chinese Benevolent Association Auditorium on Wednesday night left disappointed as the main bout between Jamaica’s Richard ‘Frog’ Holmes and American challenger Xavier Ford ended inside of one minute.

If the bout had ended with a knockout, it would be a welcome thing. But to the collectively letdown of all, the fight ended prematurely due to injury. It was the pumped-up fans who were left floored by the unexpected outcome.

Ford, who came into the contest promising to make a joke of the veteran’Frog’ Holmes, was out injured in the 55th second in the five-round main bout of the evening.

The American had to be lifted out of the ring writhing in pain, obviously suffering from some discomfort in the region of the right shoulder. The injury sustained by the 19-year-old American was so severe that the ringside medical team, headed by Dr Andre McDonald, had to declare the contest over.

An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan done afterwards showed that Ford tore a tendon at the right shoulder.

Holmes, who was later declared the winner by technical knockout (TKO), expressed disappointment that he had to leave work earlier than he had planned.

“When you come to work, you come to work. It was a five-round bout, and just when I was expecting to get some work under my belt, it ended and I never got the workout I had planned,” Holmes said afterwards.

The Jamaican is not sure how Ford sustained the injury.

“The kid just went down. I could not say whether or not I caught him with a punch,” he noted.

“This is behind me now. But I was just going to use this fight as an opportunity to get in some ring work as after I finished last year’s Contender, I have not been back in the ring. My intention was to use this fight as a warm-up bout,” Holmes added.

Three fights were carded for Wednesday’s opening night of the electrifying boxing series — two preliminary amateur bouts and the main professional bout, but none got past the first round.

In the opening three-rounder between the hard-hitting Joel Wedderburn of the St Thomas Gym and Iranyo Creary of Heavy Metal, that contest was stopped at 2:32 minutes of the first round and Wedderburn declared the winner by the TKO route.

The second amateur bout between Samuel Grant of Sugar Olympic Gym and Andre Sloley of Heavy Metals Gym, took five seconds longer at 2:37 minutes in another TKO, which Grant won.