Brandon Brewer Builds a Boxing Business with His ‘Plaid Army’
It’s no surprise a community as small and interconnected as Fredericton could rally together behind a cause. Few understand that better than Nackawic-born, Fredericton-based professional super welterweight boxer and promoter Brandon Brewer.
Brewer has faced challenges beyond the countless fighters he’s faced in the ring. After a rocky start to his adult life, Brewer knew he wanted to fight professionally in his home base of Fredericton, where, at the time, professional bouts were illegal.
“We didn’t have a provincial-based commission so we technically couldn’t have prize fights in Fredericton,” Brewer explained. “A provincial commission [was] formed and then it was up to our municipality to accept it and they weren’t accepting it. They weren’t giving us the go-ahead.”
“But I knocked on some doors and pushed the limits a little bit and eventually we got them to say go ahead and let’s do it. I knew that it being the first time it was happening, the eyes were going to be on us so I knew it had to be done professionally on all aspects.”
Brewer went on to found L-Jack Promotions Inc., a sports entertainment company that promotes professional boxing and MMA events. He credits the success of the company and events they’ve put on to date to overwhelming support from the community and his band of followers, dubbed the Plaid Army.
As a community that expresses support during both good times and bad, Brewer says the Plaid Army and the Fredericton community at large truly rallied together recently when cruiserweight boxer David Whittom suffered a traumatic brain injury in a bout against Gary Kopas at the L-Jack Promotions World Class Boxing event May 27.
“The community was outstanding. I was impressed with the intelligence and the view that they had on the situation,” Brewer says. “Normally you get a situation like that and everybody just loses their brains and loses their hearts and they make stupid comments that make no sense and lack compassion and respect.”
Brewer began a fundraising initiative for Whittom to donate proceeds of Brewer’s Plaid Army brand merchandise to the injured boxer and his family.
“People need to understand that I don’t know Dave as a boxer,” says Brewer. “Dave and I are friends outside of boxing. People tend to forget that. [The fundraising campaign] wasn’t something that was really thought out, it was more just an instinctual thing because Dave is my friend.”
According the last news reports, Whittom was still in hospital, and the family said it wouldn’t make any more statements about his condition for time being.
“Our family has been impressed and humbled by the support of the boxing community and the community at large for the thoughts and prayers they have sent to help David’s recovery,” said Whittom’s stepbrother, Eric Moffatt, in a written statement. “The family would also like to thank the medical team in Fredericton, but mostly in Saint John for their professionalism and their warm, caring approach during David’s stay.”
“Our family will not make any more announcements until further notice and appreciate going through this tough circumstance in private.”
Despite the risks of the sport, Brewer says boxing has been lifesaving for him. It was an outlet when he didn’t know where else to turn, when he had a pile of energy and continued to get in trouble for fighting in public.
“I had a bunch of fines from fighting in public so I was sick and tired of getting in trouble and spending money to be able to fight,” he says. “It was time to smarten up and make some of that money back.”
Brewer recognized from the get-go that professional boxing was a business, and the business was about selling tickets. To do this, Brewer needed a brand. Being what he calls a “regular Joe” from a family of lumberjacks in Nackawic, he wanted to stay true to his roots so New Brunswickers would relate to him. Through that, Brandon “L-Jack” Brewer and the Plaid Army were born.
“My closet is filled with plaid,” he says. “I’m not marketing something that I’m not. It makes it so much easier. There’s no fakeness to it. The Plaid Army came about because I wanted to make my fans feel part of something. I wanted them to feel like they were part of a team, part of an army. Half of them were wearing plaid anyway so why not tell the other half to wear plaid too.”
“I don’t market fakeness. You can’t do that. Eventually, the truth comes out and it phases out. It’s just based off my roots really.”
Brewer says his connections at home made creating L-Jack Promotions here a logical choice. Being told countless times that he could never make it big time in New Brunswick has made Brewer all the more determined to prove the doubters wrong.
He knows he has to put on massive events and draw a crowd in Fredericton if he hopes to bring big-time TV here, his ultimate goal for L-Jack Promotions.
With three major events in the bag for the company, which Brewer says have brought in an economic impact of more than $1 -million for Fredericton, the next event for the company, their first foray into MMA, is set to take place July 29 at the Grant-Harvey Centre.
And Brewer has no plans to stop there or slow down his own boxing career.
“My future plans as an athlete are to win a world championship,” he says. “I want my respect in the boxing world. I know how good I am. I know I’m one of the best fighters in the world and I need to expose that on big-time TV.”
“I’d like to eventually bring big-time TV here, be it HBO or Showtime or ESPN … I’d like to bring them to Fredericton and fight in front of my hometown and showcase not only my talents, but the support I have here to the rest of the world through TV.”