DO you remember where you were on October 11, 2002, when Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite recorded a 10th-round TKO win over Italian Vincenzo Cantatore?

Braithwaite, who hails from the village of Plaisance on the East Coast of Demerara, on that fateful night, joined Andrew ‘Six Heads’ Lewis on the list of Guyanese to claim a world title.

The clash against Cantatore, who at the time had developed a reputation in the World Boxing Council’s (WBC) Cruiserweight division as a Knockout specialist, saw Braithwaite claim the WBC Cruiserweight World title, having defeated Tosca Petridis for WBC’s International Cruiserweight title via TKO in 1999, in Melbourne, Australia.

Braithwaite went on to have successful title defence matchups against Ravea Springs (February 21, 2003), Luis Andres Pineda (December 13, 2003) and Louis Azille on April 14, 2004.

By then, ‘Brig Truck’ had racked-up an impressive record in the cruiserweight division with 20 undefeated fights. With the exception of his bout with Azille and John Lennox Lewis (1997 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall), which ended in a Unanimous Decision win, the other 18 wins at the time came from Braithwaite putting his opponents on the canvas.

On April 2, 2005, Braithwaite tasted defeat for the very first time in his career when he went down to Jean Marc Mormeck via a Unanimous Decision.

The defeat saw Braithwaite relinquish his WBC Cruiserweight title, and also fail to grab hold of the World Boxing Association (WBA) World Cruiserweight title.

The southpaw cruiserweight Braithwaite recorded his second professional defeat on September 3, 2005 when he was TKOed in round-four by Panamanian Guillermo Jones for the WBA Fedelatin Cruiserweight title and WBC Latino Cruiserweight title.

After failing to get past Enzo Maccarinelli on July 21, 2007 for the WBO World Cruiserweight title and picking up his third career defeat, Braithwaite bounced back on March 3, 2008, to win via TKO against Yoan Pablo Hernandez and claim the WBA Fedelatin Cruiserweight title and WBC Latino Cruiserweight title.

However, after his win against Hernandez, Braithwaite never fully got back to being the ‘Big Truck’ of the Cruiserweight division

On July 11, 2009, the man from Plaisance who had gotten the ‘Big Truck’ moniker from former promoter and Member of Parliament, Odinga Lumumba, lost via Unanimous Decision to Steve Cunningham in a non-title fight.

He returned to win via TKO against Adam Harris in March of the following year, but after a two-year break and fighting at home for the first time since his TKO win over Wayne Harris, Braithwaite went down to Barbados’ Shawn Cox.

Eight months later (October 26, 2012), determined to show the boxing world and his fans at home that he still has what it takes, Braithwaite faced compatriot Shawn Corbin at Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, and lost by Unanimous Decision.

The fight marked the last time the man who many only know as ‘Big Truck’ stepped into the boxing ring.

The ‘champ’, as he popularly known in his village of Plaisance, celebrated his 45th birth anniversary on August 9. He could feel proud of his illustrious career, which saw him move from winning the Guyana Cruiserweight title (1998) to the WBC International Cruiserweight title (1999), followed by the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) Cruiserweight title (2000) before holding on and successfully defending his WBC World Cruiserweight title (2002-2005).