Will Contender Series help the Heavy Weight Div?

[SigmaMu]

Huge rumor about Contender III being heavy weights. Will this help or hurt this division?

I do not watch heavy weights but I know a lot of you do.

Your thoughts?

[TyBuff]

It wont help the division at all, in fact it might hurt boxing as a whole. Any heavyweight they will be able to get on the show wont be that great anyways. Bad idea, would rather them do lightweights.

[meowza]

I don't think the show will help the division in the immediate future but if the heavyweight installment brings more attention to the division maybe some big kids out there today might decide to take up boxing themselves instead of football or some of the other lucrative sports and become decent fighters many years from now.

I think all the show will do is throw in more mediocre fighters in an already saturated pool of mediocrity. Unless a Mike Tyson type guy comes out of this thing. But what are the chances of that?

[Kev]

I think they would definitely generate interest. I mean less than two years after the first series aired their losing finalist is getting a shot at a world title against a the longest reigning champ in boxing, and the winner was offered a fight with the p4p top 5 middleweight champion.

That's a definite success as far as the show is concerned. They are bringing a load of the contenders from both series over to fight in the UK, which is great for boxing as well.

If they did a show on heavyweights I actually reckon it could be entertaining, and could create one or two fighters to watch in the future.

I'd imagine they would probably have to cast their net wider than the US though. Imagine if they found a couple of unknown eastern Europeans and maybe some big giant African dude or a fighter from somewhere completely remote, a big Icelandic blonde haired colossus or a fierce, stocky Mongolian warrior.

I maybe getting carried away a little but I do really like the idea. Another series with the lower weight guys does allow them the possibility of fights between guys across all three series, but beyond that it only serves to increase the competition in what are already very higly contested weight classes.

Surely another series around the welterweight weight limit would be unworkable as how many welter's and junior middle's can they realistically promote?

I think heavyweights could well be the way to go.

[No Contest]

If this season is the third season, I heard it is going to be all different weight classes and two teams, one from the U.K. one from U.S.A. or am I way off?

[orion2076]

It could work. At least when the fight happens, and they only show bits and pieces of the fight, they can edit out all the hugging and lulls of the fight. And only show the big heavyweight bombs. And only 5 round fights. In australia, they have nitro boxing nights. 6 rounds. A lot better for tv and the occasional boxing fan, who also watch the contender.