The Contender pt.3 - SMW this autumn

**rvk1331** · 06-26-2007 07:13 PM

http://www.boxingconfidential.com/articles.php?id=1992

good to see some well-known faces in pt.3 - and HW is following in January...

**Sugar_Shaw** · 06-26-2007 07:41 PM

sound intersting, but i hought the point was to make new stars not ust make a couple of current fighters fight each other

**skel1983** · 06-26-2007 07:52 PM

We need more ypung fighters with potential, these guys are getting world title shots while in reality there no where near the elite.

**Kev** · 06-26-2007 10:10 PM

I was told last year that Scott Dann had been offered a place on this show but he's unfortunately retired due to long term injuries.

He would have really interested me seeing as he was on the fringe of world class.

Sam Soliman is a great addition to the show but really he's had his chances and I can't see him beating world champion at any weight.

Probably not the best showcase for Howard Eastman. He's a notoriously slow starter and would have lost a five round fight before he even got going.

I really liked the first Contender but I think it's a little bit of a joke now. Instead of churning out show after show how about developing the talents they have already discovered?

Fair enough the big stars of Season 1 have gone on to make small waves, Manfredo, More and Gomez but what the hell has happened to the Season 2 stars?

Grady Brewer seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Steve Forbes who is far and away their best 'prospect' they just totally ignore forcing to him to appear on boxingtalk asking to be released.

Joey Gilbert and Ishe Smith have also left them, and Gilbert in particular seems to be making very good progress indeed.

I'm not sure public interest will sustain much beyond a third series.

Getting well known fighters in is a double edged sword. On the one hand guys like Soliman are proven fighters and add legtimacy but on the other hand we've all already seen him outclassed and beaten by the top guys so know he is no real 'contender' any more. If he was to win the show, and he would have a great chance over 5 rounds considering he can throw 800 punches in that time, it would just devalue the whole thing as we know he ain't world class.

Grady Brewer winning last year was the same, a journeyman fighter who it seems even the Contender people have no interest in promoting.

Young unknowns are the best option in a show like this, at least we don't already know that they don't have it...

**CFH** · 06-26-2007 10:31 PM

It's strange that they continue to pick established, somewhat high ranking, journeymen/gatekeeper type fighters. I liked the premise of the 1st show, and enjoyed watching it (aside from the bs editing), but I didn't like the 2nd one nearly as much because none of the guys they selected were really prospects. The ones that you could consider prospects in the 2nd season were pretty much no hopers or busts anyways who had already lost against lesser opposition...
What made the 1st one so compelling was that pretty much all of the boxers on it were up and comers with some chance at having a bright future in boxing... I don't understand why they don't go back to that format, its far more interesting than hearing the same goddamn sob story from every fighter.
Lucien Bute would've cleaned up if he had signed on, but his career is better off without the Contender.

**Kev** · 06-26-2007 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by CFH

It's strange that they continue to pick established, somewhat high ranking, journeymen/gatekeeper type fighters. I liked the premise of the 1st show, and enjoyed watching it (aside from the bs editing), but I didn't like the 2nd one nearly as much because none of the guys they selected were really prospects. The ones that you could consider prospects in the 2nd season were pretty much no hopers or busts anyways who had already lost against lesser opposition...
What made the 1st one so compelling was that pretty much all of the boxers on it were up and comers with some chance at having a bright future in boxing... I don't understand why they don't go back to that format, its far more interesting than hearing the same goddamn sob story from every fighter.
Lucien Bute would've cleaned up if he had signed on, but his career is better off without the Contender.

The thing is the gatekeepers and journeymen are a good edition to the show as they provide credibility and some legitimacy to the up and comers on the show when they beat them.

We saw this on the first show with proven veteran fighters like Tarick Salmaci, Johnathan Reid and Anthony Bonsante being beaten by younger hungrier fighters and they were good names on their records.

However in the second show it misfired somewhat spectacularly when it ended up being the washed up old veterans who actually reached the latter stages. This in my book made the second show finale somewhat embarrasing. Steve Forbes would have been a worthy winner, especially in the light of his fine showing over D Hop but Brewer is just a joke champion. Thank God Noberto Bravo didn't win it at least!