Pine Belt boxers brought amateur and professional fights to The Center at Forrest County this month during Cinco de Mayo Box Night, a community-focused event that highlighted local fighters, youth mentorship and efforts to strengthen Mississippi’s boxing culture.
JB Boxing and Fitness’ Cinco de Mayo Box Night took place May 2 and featured boxers from across the state. The event also included an award ceremony recognizing Joshua Brown, JB Boxing and Fitness owner and event promoter, for his longtime impact on youth mentorship and boxing in the Hub City.
Brown said he had been building toward this event for 20 years, describing his amateur fighting career as going well before he made the decision to stop fighting and follow his greater purpose, which was to use coaching as a way to “win souls for God.”
“I came from a background where the neighborhood I was in, there was a lot of single-parent households. So, I wanted to step up, follow my leadership path and walk in my purpose,” Brown said.
The next step was to start hosting fights, not only to showcase the fighters, but to bring the community together, according to Brown.
“It’s about bringing people together — people from all different walks of life — and allowing them a place and a platform for a mother, a father and their children to come to,” Brown said.
Brothers Javion “Killa Red” Smith and Amir “Money Mir” Smith each won their professional fights with first-round knockouts.
Javion Smith said he started boxing at age 10, which he credits to his mom and the physicality of growing up in a home with four brothers.
“Without my mom, (the Smith brothers) wouldn’t even be where we are today,” Javion Smith said. “We were football players, basketball players and everything else before boxing.”
The Smith brothers’ victories marked each of their first professional wins.
Hattiesburg native Derrian “Huncho” Herron won his professional fight by judges’ decision. He said he feels he could have gotten the knockout but started entertaining the crowd, which included many family members who came down from up north.
TJ “Jabman” Henly lost by judges’ decision to Chevonne “Chevy” Cousin. Henly said the box night gave him the opportunity to impact young lives, something he said was a more important win than the fight itself would have been.
The event helped platform Henly and others’ #MississippiStrong and #BiggerThanBoxing movements, created to bring Mississippi’s community together through boxing.
“Our main priority is showing the world that Mississippi is really a lot different than what they think about us,” Henly said. “We’re resilient, we’re tough, we’re some of the best people in the world.”
Brown encourages anyone interested in upcoming events to follow JB Boxing and Fitness on Facebook and Instagram for updates.
