RSSThe Contender
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Coolest Thing Ever
This has to be the coolest thing ever.
Everyone knows about ESPN’s new video clips. Just about everything is available these days. However instead of seeing certain segments of The Contender, you can now watch an entire fight.
Here’s Sakio Bika vs Donnie McCrary from last week.
Enjoy.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
De La Hoya, Leonard Make Friendly Bet
LOS ANGELES - Famed pugilists Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Ray Leonard have made a “friendly” bet on two bouts between fighters from their respective camps, making the September 15 “Fireworks” boxing event, featuring Juan Manuel Marquez against Rocky Juarez in the main event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and live on pay-per-view, that much more explosive.
In the first bout, and opening the pay-per-view telecast that evening, Francisco “Panchito” Bojado will represent De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. His opponent Steve Forbes, will represent the Leonard-hosted ‘The Contender’ Series, as runner-up from Contender Season Two. In the other bout, Golden Boy pugilist and former junior middleweight champion Kassim “The Dream” Ouma will battle Contender first season winner Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora. The winners of the bouts will decide the winner of the bet between De La Hoya and Leonard with both decorated fighters agreeing that the loser will provide ring card girl duties between the first and second round of the main event. If it’s a draw with one bout a piece for each side, De La Hoya and Leonard will share ring card duties.
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Thursday, August 30, 2007
Nguyen Added To Campos-Bravo Card
Undefeated featherweight prospect Dat “Dat Be Dat” Nguyen (11-0, 6 KO’s) returns to action Friday, August 31 at the Casino Del Sol in Tuscon, Arizona, where he takes on Rio Rico, Arizona journeyman Baladan Trevizo (5-13-6, 1 KO).
In his most recent outing, a toe-to-toe slugfest with fellow prospect and stablemate Castulo Gonzalez (9-3, 3 KOs), Nguyen threw an amazing 886 punches in route to a hard fought 8-round unanimous decision victory. The bout, which aired live on the July 18 installment of ESPN2’s Wednesday Night Fight’s, will likely find itself as a candidate for fight of the year honors.
Nguyen, who is trained by the heralded James “Buddy” McGirt, spent the majority of his time preparing for this bout with Victor Ramos at Ramos’ Palm Bay, Florida gym, as McGirt was away working as a trainer for the third season of The Contender reality TV show.
The Nguyen - Trevizo bout will be a featured undercard attraction on promoter Don Chargin’s card, which will be televised live on the Telefutura network. The headlining bout will feature Yuri Boy Campas (89-10, 72 KOs) and Norberto Bravo (24-13-3, 13 KOs) in a ten-round light middleweight affair. The bout will represent the 100th fight in the career of Campas.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The Contender 3 Cast Training Session
The cast of The Contender: Season 3 works out with Sparq Training Systems in order to test out their speed, power, agility, and endurance before they begin fighting on September 4th on ESPN.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Smith to Face Contender Alum Reid
Pennsylvania based veteran Dhafir Smith 17-16-5 {4 KO’s} has stepped in to challenge Contender season 1 star Jonathan “Reid Dawg” Reid 34-6 {19 KO’s}. The fight which will be the co-main event at the New Alhambra in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will be fought at catch weight of 165 lbs.
Smith is stepping in for Rasheem Brown who pulled out for undisclosed reasons and will be looking for his second straight victory after scoring a shocking knockout over Brandon Mitchem on July 27th. Reid will attempt to impress the crowd in his first trip to Philadelphia as well as new promoter Diane Lee Fischer of Dee Lee Promotions.
“I will be prepared to the best of my ability” said the former NABA Middleweight king. “I am not sure why Rasheem Brown pulled out, but I will dedicate this fight to my fellow season 1 Contender stable mate Najai Turpin who committed suicide shortly after the show. It an honor to be able to come into his home turf and compete in the squared circle. My victory will go out to him and his family”.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Gatti-Gomez Conference Call Quotes
The following is a summary of the media conference call that took place earlier today discussing the upcoming bout between Arturo Gatti and Alfonso Gomez on July 14th at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ courtesy of Main Events.
Featured on the conference call are Gatti, Gomez, Main Events CEO Kathy Duva, and Executive Producer of The Contender, Jeff Wald.
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Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Gomez Comments on Concepcion Victory
Just back from his first trip across the pond, a triumphant Alfonso Gomez spoke about his win last weekend over Martin Concepcion.
Gomez scored a TKO in the 7th round of the fight, which was one of eight matches held March 30 in Newcastle, England, billed as the first annual Contender UK vs. USA “Sugar Ray Leonard Cup.” Gomez admitted to feeling frustrated in the early rounds, wanting to get aggressive but remaining wary of the punching power of Concepcion. “I thought he was going to use his size and power advantages to pressure and tire me out, but to my surprise he tried to box me and use his jab,” Gomez said. “That threw me off a little bit because I was prepared for a war on the inside.”
“I knew I could knock him out,” Gomez continued. “I just needed to get the punches in. I used my jab and better skills to connect, but I didn’t want to rush in to finish him because of his power, which I felt in the 4th round when he caught me with a good left hook.” Concepcion also had apparently done his homework, which added to the challenge.
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Saturday, January 13, 2007
Bundrage, Wright Victorious on FNF
Contender alumni Cornelius Bundrage and Walter Wright were both victorious last night on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.
It was the first bout for both fighters since before taping for the show began.
Bundrage inched out a split decision over Chris Smith in a fight where Bundrage was nearly stopped in the sixth round. Bundrage controlled the fight early on as he established his jab and was able to counter anything that Smith threw at him for the most part.
However Smith started to mount a comeback in the sixth round, connecting with a flurry of punches that had Bundrage reeling against the ropes and in danger. Luckily, Bundrage was saved by the bell before Smith could finish him.
Bundrage then started to pull away until the final round where Smith once again connected with multiple flurries but still was unable to stop Bundrage from continuing to press the action. The judges then ruled that Bundrage escaped with a split decision victory…
Walter Wright defeated Dan Wallace in the eighth round of their bout when a brutal flurry of punches from Wright forced the referee to stop the contest.
Wright dominated the entire fight and showed very crisp striking. Wallace appeared to be in great shape as well but had trouble finding his range throughout the entire fight.
It was in the eighth round where things quickly began to change - Wright stunned Wallace with a left hook, sending Wallace off-balance into the ropes. Wright capitalized on the opportunity and threw a flurry of 10 unanswered punches until the referee gave Wallace a standing count. The fight restarted but another unanswered flurry gave Wright the victory.
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Monday, October 16, 2006
HBO Backs Out of Jones-Manfredo; Showtime, ESPN Interested
ESPN is reporting that HBO has backed out and will not offer to televise the possible bout between Roy Jones Jr. and Peter Manfredo Jr.
After discussions with Manfredo’s promotional group - the same group that operates The Contender reality TV show - HBO decided that they were no longer interested in televising the event. I think it’s a good chance that HBO didn’t want to have to deal with all of The Contender references that would come along with having Manfredo as one of their fighters.
Two possibilties remain: Showtime and ESPN
Jones’ advisor Jim Thomas had a statement on why HBO decided not to pursue the bout…
They weren’t sure if they could afford Roy on the show,” Thomas told ESPN.com. “We were still dickering over Roy’s participation in the upside, but the guarantee was set. The money was what Roy had sent me out to get and we were happy with the deal, but then this HBO thing happened. So we’re talking to Showtime to see if it is something we can still do.”
It makes sense, but I’m sure that The Contender also had something to do with the decision.
Just in case the Manfredo fight never develops, Jones Jr. has a backup plan that we have already reported...
Jones’ advisor, Jim Thomas has stated that if victorious against Manfredo or whoever his opponent is this winter, he would then challenge Clinton Woods for his light-heavyweight strap.
It’s very smart to become involved in other discussions because a fight always has the possibility of falling through, even at the last minute when it becomes unthinkable. Manfredo’s camp hasn’t even made a statement on Jones’ challenge to my knowledge yet either. What if Manfredo says that he’s not ready for Roy?
“Ideally, Roy could fight Manfredo in January and then do the Clinton Woods fight on Showtime a few months later,” Jim Thomas has said.
If everything works out, the above would be exactly what would happen, providing that Jones is victorious against Manfredo. I don’t believe that Woods-Jones Jr. can happen on the original date in March, especially if the Manfredo fight happens on January 20th.
Woods-Jones Jr. II would happen at the ideal time to have a rematch between the two - Jones would be coming off his second straight victory; Woods would have a shot at avenging his 2002 loss to Jones Jr and defend his title…
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006
The Contender 2 Finale
Well it all comes down to this: Grady Brewer vs Steve Forbes…
The show starts with a look at the crowd inside the Staples Center - It looks like it’s jam packed and everyone is pretty excited to see some boxing. A small preview of the main event is done as well as the bronze medal fight between Corneilus Bundrage and Norberto Bravo. It is revealed that Bundrage’s sister was murdered over the summer.
Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas will be calling the action. The fight starts and it’s immediately visible that Bundrage has improved his game. His jab is looking very crisp and he is easily controlling the fight while Bravo is still trying to find his range and figure out how to get inside on Bundrage. The first round definitely goes to Bundrage.
The second rounds begins and it’s more of the same: total domination by Bundrage. Bundrage drops Bravo towards the end of the second round but Bravo is able to get back up to his feet. The camera goes to the locker rooms and shows Steve Forbes getting ready for the fight. The fight continues and Bundrage continues to pull away. Bravo starts a small comeback but is unable to execute anything big at all.
The seventh round becomes the end of the fight as Bundrage starts teeing off on Bravo, worse than in any other round. Bravo can’t even intelligently defend himself at this point and the referee is forced to jump in and stop the fight midway through the round.
For the main event, I’m going to digress from my usual story type of reporting - I think I’m just going to recap the fight as a whole…
I’m pretty sure everyone knows that Grady Brewer wins by split decision if you watch the show. If you didn’t know already, you are welcome.
Brewer pretty much won the fight because of his size advantage over Forbes. He was able to outmuscle him during the clinches, being able to push off and land punches and control the fight whenever he wanted to. I’m sure that Brewer winning most of the early rounds helped him as well. Honestly, I think that Forbes should be fighting at 140 lbs instead of 149 lbs.
What’s surprising is that Forbes seemed to be the more aggressive fighter and usually that would result in success but it really didn’t - Brewer was able to beat him to the punch at many moments.