Brown

Natalie 'Too Bad' Brown, whose place in Jamaican boxing history is firmly cemented after she won a silver medal in the welterweight division, wearing the nation's colours at the first World Female Boxing Championships held in Scranton, Pennsylvania from October 21-27, 2001, is in Jamaica on a two-week visit.

Brown, who is now a professional boxer and fights as a light-welterweight, lives in Mississauga, Canada with her Jamaica-born husband Chris Johnson, a former professional boxer, who is now a boxing coach and son Omar. She is also a personal trainer.

Brown, who was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Jamaican parents, James and Tryfene Brown from May Pen, Clarendon, had an excellent amateur career and was a regular on the USA boxing team.

She has on her résumé several USA Golden Gloves and National Championship titles and was USA Boxing's Female Athlete of the Year in 2002.

She gave birth to her son in 2004, and this she told The Star, delayed her moving into the professional ranks until 2006. She now has a 6-2 record with four knockouts and her last fight taking place on December 1, 2012 in Canada, when she stopped Tammie Johnson in two rounds.

Brown said she is excited to be visiting Jamaica and is anxious to meet some of the young female boxers here. She hopes to do some training while here, and looks forward to sparring with some of the male boxers at one of our gyms.

"There is nothing that would please me more than to have a fight in Jamaica, and I hope that it will be sooner rather than later," she added.

She said she was thrilled to hear that Jamaica had a new world champion in the person of Nicholas Walters, the World Boxing Association featherweight champion.

"I am proud of him and hope that he will have a long and successful reign. Wouldn't it be great to get a fight on the undercard when he fights next, here in Jamaica," she wondered aloud. "I hope that it can happen."