This Prize fighter is Worth a Bet

Gurkha has a number of well-known brands and often releases new products under other recently established trade names. In this instance, Gurkha used its East India Trading Company to launch its Prize Fighter brand of cigars. The Prize Fighter is targeted as a “budget” medium bodied cigar with a blend of Connecticut shade Ecuadorian wrapper, around an Ecuadorian/Indonesian binder and a 3-year aged Dominican filler. Prize Fighters come in bundles of 20 sticks in 3 sizes – robusto (5 X 52), toro (6 X 54) and XO (6 X 60).

I visited Gurkha at the 2013 IPCPR and they gave me a Prize Fighter toro to review. The cigars construction was very firm, almost too much so. The cap was exceptionally nice and the image of the prize fighter on the unusual cigar band reminded me of the famous John L. Sullivan – the Boston Strongboy, the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing (1882). He was also the champion of bare knuckle boxing and was the first American athlete to earn $1 million. Gentleman Jim Corbett took Sullivan’s title away in 1892. Enough about the band.

The cigar had a very mild, nutty taste. I consider it more mild than medium bodied. The flavor was balanced throughout the smoke and the smoke volume was acceptable, even creamy. It took 1 hour to smoke. The draw was very good with an even better ash and mild aftertaste. I found a bundle of 20 on the internet at a price of $30 – that is $1.5 per cigar! This is a lot of cigar at that price and I would declare the Prize Fighter toro a champion of value! My rating is a 4.5 out of 5. My only regret is Gurkha gave me 1 cigar to review instead of 1 bundle.