Brandon Berry’s life changed dramatically on Sept. 30.
Surrounded by family and friends, the West Forks native married the love of his life, Jillian Plourd.
By the time he awoke early the next morning, Berry’s life had changed even more dramatically.
Joel Bishop, his childhood friend and the co-best man at his wedding along with older brother Gordon, had been found dead in his car just off U.S. Route 201 not far from where the ceremony took place.
No official cause of the single-car accident has been determined yet.
“It was very foggy and was on a corner and it looked like he over-corrected from the marks on the road and hit a telephone pole,” said Berry, whose family operates a nearby general store. “Anything could have happened, maybe a deer jumped out. A few days after the accident I went through and right where he crashed a big raccoon ran out in front of me and I had to swerve and I came inches from the guard rail.
“There are so many things that could have happened that we’ll never know,” Berry added. “At the end of the day what we do know is that it was a horrible accident.”
Berry and the 31-year-old Bishop, who met as youngsters growing up in Bingham, shared many interests but perhaps none more intense than boxing.
[ Maine boxer Berry slated to make pro debut Saturday (2013)]
Both advanced through the regional Golden Gloves ranks, with Bishop campaigning as a heavyweight and compiling a 12-2 record. He avenged both losses with subsequent victories.
“He was too short for that weight class,” said Berry. “He should have been lighter but he proved everybody wrong time and time and time again in his amateur career. He beat guys he had no business being in the ring with but he had a heart that was too big, it wasn’t even fair.”
Bishop followed Berry into the professional ranks, fighting at 168 pounds and earning a draw in his bouts against Jarod Lawton and Crowsneck Boutin.
Now Berry, 11-2-1 as a professional, is set to resume his boxing career after being sidelined for the last year and a half due to the recurrence of a shoulder injury.
Cleared by his doctor in mid-September to resume boxing, Berry will return to the ring Saturday night against Pennsylvanian Eric Palmer in a six-round welterweight contest at the Portland Exposition Building.
The fight is a rematch of a six-round battle between them three years ago in Lewiston that Berry won by unanimous decision.
“We had a really good fight before and I think it’s a fitting opponent for what we’re looking for in a fight right now,” said Berry. “With my layoff I think it will be a good matchup.”
[ West Forks boxer sidelined with labrum tear]
But as much as this bout will be about kick-starting Berry’s own boxing career, it also will serve as a memorial service of sorts for his fallen friend, who was known in the ring as “the Baby Bull.”
“I’m just going to try to think of him the whole time and think of what he would do,” said the 30-year-old Berry. “We trained hundreds and hundreds of rounds beside each other. Boxing was something we loved together, and I feel like with him not being here anymore that being back in the ring is the closest I can be to him.”
Berry admits his own chances for success Saturday night would have benefitted from a longer training camp. He’s been satisfied with the quality of the workouts, but he will step into the ring with little more than six weeks of preparation.
“I think the final decision to actually fight was completely based on an emotional decision at the time and wanting to fight for my friend,” he said. “A lot of people think it may not be the right decision, being this soon and especially dealing with what happened, but I’m going to have to make it seem like it was the right decision, I hope.”
Berry anticipates a big turnout at the Expo in support of both his fighting career and in memory of Bishop — “Baby Bull” T-shirts have been distributed in the weeks leading up to the bout.
“You get married on Saturday night and it’s the best day of your life and then you wake up Sunday morning and it’s the worst day of your life,” said Berry. “Then three days later you’re at a wake and two days after that you’re burying your best friend in the world.
“Nobody should have to go through that, but we both loved boxing and I guess this is just my way of showing him how much I love him.”
Follow BDN Maine Sports on Facebook for the latest in Maine high school and college sports.
