‘Breezy’ Richards overcomes late opponent change

While the last-minute opponent change may have put off some fighters, for Jermanine 'Breezy' Richards, it was another day at the office, with a performance that he says fuels his rise and ambition to be the best in the sport.

Richards put in a dominating performance, defeating United States of America's (USA) heavyweight Stephen Kirnon by a third-round technical knockout in the main event, to close off the opening night of the Wray And Nephew Fight Night series on Saturday at the Cling Cling Oval.

Richards was scheduled to face Omar 'Crane' Edmund, who pulled out of the fight after sustaining an injury, leading to Kirnon's late addition.

For any potential curveballs it could make, Richards took it in stride, like his nickname.

"It wasn't really a curveball because I'm that dude. I'm easy-breezy, so anything and everything that you come up with, I am a fighter by heart. It's my lifestyle," Richards said.

He said that given the change in opponent, he was not sure what to expect, given the training that he endured outside of Jamaica, to specifically, prepare for Edmund.

"It was quite difficult because I went to Colombia, where I was in the space for one month and did training. It was very intense. Coming back, I expected to fight the Jamaican. So coming at the last minute that I had to fight an American, I didn't know what to expect," Richards said.

He stated that the time away helped him to get into the right frame of mind to handle everything Kirnon threw at him.

"It helped me physically and mentally on a different scale because, in Jamaica, there is not a lot of infrastructure to train hard. Away, I got to train as hard as possible," Richards said. "I planned to come in and execute with body shots and try to finish without hurting his face or head. I just wanted to work the body."

With another fight expected in the next five weeks, Richards says he is eager for any comers as he climbs the ladder to reign supreme in the Caribbean, before taking on the International Boxing Federation circuit.