anyone watch it last night? im not really into reality tv, but im a boxing fan, and i actually liked it a lot...i think it replays on cnbc tonight if anyone wants to see it.

3/8/2005 7:05:49 PM

i think the show has a lot of promise but if theyre going to leave it in the time slot opposite american idol and csi miami they might as well go ahead and pull it off the air

3/8/2005 8:03:48 PM

Ha, I was about to post a topic about this, glad I glanced down the page first.

For those of you that don't it, it's Sugar Ray Leonard and Sylvester Stallone hosting a boxing reality show. They split it up into boxers from the east and the west, and then at the end of the show one from each side boxes and the loser has to leave.

I liked it too, I can't believe the outcome though, I totally thought it would have swung the other way

3/8/2005 11:10:04 PM

the most expensive reality show ever just tanked

3/8/2005 11:11:52 PM

^^ thats the great thing about boxing. no matter how good you are, there always seems to be someone out there who has your number.

3/9/2005 3:20:04 AM

I really enjoyed it last night. Unlike other reality shows there is actually a real challenge at the end, not some stupid Survivor or American Idol shit.

3/9/2005 10:46:16 AM

and plus

boxing is always fun to watch

and it totally helps they're doing a rockyfest right now on AMC, so during the contender commercials I was watching Rocky train for his Mr. T fight

haha

[Edited on March 9, 2005 at 11:18 AM. Reason : .]

3/9/2005 11:17:55 AM

and almost every match is fixed

3/9/2005 11:22:00 AM

another win I really didn't see coming

and do they really have to have some "backstabber" in every single reality show? I mean really

3/11/2005 10:07:16 AM

is it just me or does it seem like they rigged the teams, all the east fighters seem to suck. I mean James was supposedly 33-1 he sure didn't look it. He got destroyed inside.

3/11/2005 11:20:13 AM

hahah yeah I don't ever watch TV. .much less keep up with when any shows come on

I'm gonna be keeping up w/ this though

3/11/2005 1:10:37 PM

It just doesn't seem like any of the east fighters are trying

I mean, number 2 in the world? (or was he number 4...the guy that lost the first week) and it looked like the guy maybe threw 20 punches the whole match, while the other guy threw at least 60

The east talks really big, and apparently has all these amazing boxers, but on fight night they don't step it up

also, i've heard (rumor) that later in the season, one of the boxers commits suicide randomly, but I don't know if it's cause he loses or something like that...wonder if that's true and/or they're going to deal with it in any special way.

Just found an old article on Yahoo News that confirmed it, I won't give the boxers name so nothing will be ruined, but you can search for it if you want


His profile is still up on the contender website, and it says

"All of us at Contender mourn the loss of a great fighter with tremendous heart and hearts go out to _____'s family in this time of courage. His death comes as a shock to all of us. We all came to love _____ and the episode in which he was most depicted will stand as a wonderful testament to who he was - it will not be changed. The Contender is about giving young men a chance to make a better life for themselves and their families. Our tragedy." –Mark Burnett

[Edited on March 11, 2005 at 1:39 PM. Reason : last edit]

3/11/2005 1:32:06 PM

yeah he killed himself in front of his gf in their car a few weeks back

it was all over the news

3/11/2005 3:29:54 PM

I enjoyed the first one, I knew he would win, dude's confidence was through the roof.

3/11/2005 3:38:05 PM

yeah one of my boys knew the guy who shot himself

3/11/2005 4:27:53 PM

peter manfredo jr was #3 when he lost.

part of the problem is, they only show highlights of the 5 rds. the east fighters could be throwing more punches that either dont land or get blocked, but yeah, they do seem to be under-acheiving...from talking with one of my boxing coaches, he said that certain cities/states have most of the best boxers. if the guys from the east are padding their records with fighters not as good as ones that guys from the west are losing to, the west fighters will be better prepared. i thought jonathan was gonna win last night, didnt do much of anything though, plus, he hasnt been all that active in the past 1.5-2 years.

and i read on espn.com a few weeks ago that the contender is gonna do a tribute to the boxer who killed himself on one of the episodes.

3/11/2005 6:13:19 PM

this episode again surprised me

and what's this about next week they're going to vote someone back on? You know hollywood is coming back, and probably going to beat the shit out of ishe

3/13/2005 9:00:14 PM

i thought it was another good episode. if they were gonna bring someone back, i think they should have done it after the first round of fighters got done, that way any other fights that had closer fights or maybe someone that got a bad decision could have been brought back. ahmed lost that clearly.

3/13/2005 9:05:07 PM

yeah, it wasn't a bad decision at all, you would think though the whole episode you see ishe being psyched out pretty much, and hollywood being confident as hell

yet

damn

haha

3/13/2005 9:19:35 PM

I have really enjoyed this show. I was glad ishe beat babyface, i didn't really like him.

3/15/2005 12:34:53 AM

BTTT. Najii was a troubled kid, I guess the emotional pain finally got the better of him. The east is now down 4 fighters, I think Sergio is beatable he opens every round with a lunging right hook leading his chin wide open and he showboated a bit too much

3/20/2005 8:58:28 PM

sad episode. najai got really tired, he didnt throw any punches towards the end. im glad ahmed didnt get voted back, didnt even get a single vote.

3/20/2005 9:07:22 PM

yeah i thought ahmed would at least get one vote, but i was glad he didnt

3/20/2005 11:13:22 PM

Quote :

"he showboated a bit too much"

Yeah, I just saw this episode today (had it recorded, cause I didn't have any other time to watch it), and that pissed me off a little. Several times through the fight he would just lower his hands and have that smug look on his face. Granted, it's a mental game too, but I dunno...

I guess I only feel that way cause I know the guy that lost went and killed himself

3/25/2005 2:47:13 PM

sugar ray was on the best damn sports show last night. he talked about how stupid ahmed was for going hard at him when they were working in the ring, and that he was just trying to show him a few things and give him some tips...then it showed some sugar ray/hagler clips.

3/25/2005 10:27:53 PM

theres a special on right now (7:00 pm) for anyone who has missed the show so far and wants to get caught up on past episodes.

3/27/2005 7:02:16 PM

hahahahahahahahah

the most recent south park made fun of this show, i love it

hahahahahahahahah

3/27/2005 11:25:11 PM

the east finally won a fight, it was a pretty good fight, although it looked like the first round is what cost the guy from the west he had the round won and then manfredo countered and got him against the ropes.

3/28/2005 9:51:38 AM

for some reason i like manfredo. i think it's because his little girl is so gosh darn cute. next week's previews look good!!! i couldn't make out who was in the ring though, i paused it at several angles and couldn't tell.

3/28/2005 10:37:01 AM

it seemed like the west coast fighter under-estimated manfredo. all the fights have been pretty good, but i want to see some knockouts.

also, i came across this article by bill simmons. if youve never read his stuff, read a few articles. hes funny as hell. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/050323

3/28/2005 2:34:26 PM

holy shit

that was a shitty thing to do, but damn, they had to stop the fight

man that's sad

[Edited on April 3, 2005 at 8:53 PM. Reason : .]

4/3/2005 8:53:07 PM

that might have been a good strategic move for round 1, but to get everyone to hate you doesnt seem to good in the long run. i wouldnt be surprised if he gets called out first thing round 2 against someone tall. he basically admitted his weakness, and unlike everyone who actually thinks their the best and can beat anyone, hes trying to take the easiest fights.

but damn, he did beat some ass.

4/3/2005 9:17:02 PM

i dont know why ishe has any reason to be so mad. he was being just as bad when he wouldnt fight baby face for about 3 weeks. they tried to push him into the fight and he wasnt ready, this guy seemed similar. the rest of the team pushed him into it and that isnt what he wanted to do.

4/3/2005 9:24:54 PM

I'm wondering about Jimmy, I've been wanting to see him fight. Guess it'll be next week or the week after. I think if the dude tonight fought Jimmy he would lose. BTW Babyface's girl is hot.

4/3/2005 10:07:28 PM

yeah she def. is. didn't they say that she was an actress or tv host or something. i wonder what she has ben in?

4/3/2005 10:18:56 PM

I will say what Anthony did was the pussy way to do things. He could have at least told his team that he wanted to fight Brent. Ishe has every right to be mad granted he skirted ahmed for 2 weeks but he did fight and beat ahmed. Anthony completely altered the game and he will get beat eventually. Anthony fought somebody that wasn't mentally ready to fight and it showed. I hope he enjoys being villified by the house, although if I was the West when the reward comes up I wouldn't go, I would stay at home, fuck bein a hypocrite, let that sonofabitch know that they don't like him.

4/4/2005 10:43:16 AM

yes, anthony should have told them that he wanted to pick his own fight, it wasnt right to lie to everyone, but he made it perfectly clear he didn't care what anyone thought of him so im sure he will be fine with the consequences. it sort of looked like he just picked an easy fight so he could be sure to win. but that will only get you so far, to win it all you have to fight someone good at some point, he will get what is coming to him. yeah i would also like to see what happens when they get the reward. if they don't like what he did so much, they shouldnt go on the reward.

4/4/2005 3:10:45 PM

good episode tonight, but they just both looked almost dead by the end of the fight, no defense, just swinging

4/10/2005 8:55:52 PM

this is the one show on tv now that i actually make it a point to turn on the tv and watch.

4/10/2005 8:58:39 PM

it seemed like juan was just going for the big punches for a knock out. he seems quick and powerful, he just needs to be more controlled. hopefully hell learn from this fight.

4/10/2005 9:12:21 PM

they were building up next week's episode to make it sound like there might be an actual knockout

4/10/2005 9:17:43 PM

just watched the replay on cnbc. juan was too out of control. if tarik could have kept him away from his body, his longer arms would have helped him win. they both needed to learn to defend themselves and tarik didn't take advantage of juan's huge punches that kept missing, he left himself wide open to be knocked out.

4/11/2005 9:15:45 PM

tarick looked more tired than anything else. i could have sworn he said he was done before the start of the last round. you do have to factor in the long layoff and his age compared to juan's age and current activity...i hate it when quick fighters think they are too fast to need to put their hands up too.

4/12/2005 2:47:27 AM

that was awesome that joey won tonight, even with the broken leg. and from the previews, it looks like baby face is coming back. i wonder why they voted for him. i was hoping it was tarick.

4/17/2005 9:02:26 PM

Joey is now the guy I am rooting for after watching that 3rd through 5th rounds when he re-injured his hamstring and didn't give up but rather held strong on beat down Jimmy in the 5th. Does look like Ishe's old nemisis is back, probably b/c he appeared to be a weaker fighter out of the ones they had to chose from.

4/17/2005 9:06:02 PM

yeah, i used the playback on tivo, and it looks like ishe vs. sergio and babface vs. alfonso.

i think tonights fight was my favorite so far.

and how about juan? what a little bitch. before his fight hes talking about beating the best and becoming the greatest, and it becomes obvious from his fight that hes not as good as everyone thought so he quit.

4/17/2005 9:07:46 PM

yeah that was pretty weak just giving up like that. of course he admited that he would have lost in the second round, and i dont think that it is because of his hand.
^when you played it back was that babyface knocking down alfonso?? Cause that would suck, i was rooting for alfanso, i dont want to see him get knocked down

4/17/2005 9:16:13 PM

yeah, it was babyface, but it was a weird angle. at first you see him getting hit and it looked like he was getting knocked down, and then it goes to a overhead view, and i couldnt really tell if alfonso was falling down or just going back from getting hit real hard.

4/17/2005 9:42:28 PM

BTTT for tonight starts in 5 minutes

4/24/2005 7:55:01 PM

Sergio won!!!

4/24/2005 9:18:53 PM