Chandrasena Jayasuriya was the ‘Knock-out King’ of Sri Lankan Boxing

C. P. Jayasuriya

Chandrasena Perera Jayasuriya better known as C. P. Jayasuriya was born to a family of boxers on January 27, 1935.

His brothers, H. P. Jayasuriya and S. P. Jayasuriya were also very talented boxers and he was nicknamed ‘knock-out king’ during the latter stages of his career.

CP who was educated at Ananda College, Colombo followed the footsteps of his brother and in 1950 he participated in the Inter-House Boxing Meet and won his bout.

This was the beginning of his boxing career and he was then 15 years old. The same year he represented Ananda College at the Stubbs Shield and won his event.

Since then, he remained an undefeated champion. When he participated in the second Asian Games held in Manila, Philippines in 1954, he was a 19-year-old schoolboy. At these Games, CP knocked-out his Japanese opponent Hiddena Warda in the first-round in 2.09s in the featherweight class but was defeated by the Korean contender in the second bout.

At the Invitation Meet held in Colombo in 1935, the Sri Lankans witnessed CP’s capabilities. He knocked-out the Japanese contender Tsutomu Yanaseiga and the Indian opponent Elu-Sakwara easily in the featherweight class.

Thereafter, CP faced Seid Greeves who was known as the ‘killer in the Pakistan boxing ring’ but knocked him out quite easily. The Burmese boxer Kim Mayang Leigh also faced defeat in the face of some superb boxing of CP.

He turned out to be the undefeated champion of the Services and emerged as the best boxer. In 1956, he participated in the Olympics in Melbourne along with his brother H. P. Jayasuriya

He lost to Britain’s Mac Taqast after a close fight. At the South Asian Boxing Meet held in Burma in 1947, he defeated his first opponent from India R. Raj but in the next round he lost to Burma’s T. Ung on points. CP won a Silver Medal on this occasion. In 1956, he participated at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales. He was first confronted with the Gold Medallist Scottish boxer in the featherweight class and lost on points.

C. P. who participated in an invitation meet held in India in 1960 won the welterweight event while knocking out the Indian champion Douglas Bruce in the first-round itself.

This dynamic boxer who won the National Championships in different weight classes during the period of 1950-1962, also won the Clifford Cup events.

He also won the award for the Scientific Boxer twice in 1952 and 1955. His coach was D. C. A. Wickramasinghe, a National champion of pin weight class. CP won 120 boxing events out of which 75 were knock-out victories. (C.D)