Fightnews: ESPN cancels The Contender! ESPN has announced that it will not renew the boxing reality series "The Contender" for a third season. After a year on NBC, the series was picked up by ESPN for two seasons. The Contender's Executive Producer Jeff Wald is hoping to put together a fourth season with an unnamed network. The season three finale between Sakio Bika and Jaidon Codrington is widely considered to be the highlight of the series. Bika won the season three tourney in a sensational fight-of-the-Year candidate bout. Other Contender champions were Sergio Mora (season one) and Grady Brewer (season two). Thursday, April 10 2008
The Show Itself ISN'T Breaking Any NEW Ground & NONE of the Former Participants have Gone On to Greatness or Anything Close... The POINT of "The Contender" was MAINSTREAM Exposure, but 1nce NBC Dumped the Show, that Exposure DIPPED Somewhat... "Contender" PALES in Comparison to UFC's "The Ultimate Fighter"...TUF is LESS Cheesy & LESS Tearjerky... The Show was GREAT for Guys like Grady Brewer, Alphonso Gomez or Brian Vera, but Overall???:dunno: REED
That's unfortunate. The Bika/Condrington fight was a very entertaining scrap, hell they should just try doing a show on the rematch 24/7 style... although Sakio is a little hard to understand so I dont know if that would make for good TV ::
Pretty much agreed with both you and Tam. I never watched the shows, and caught just a couple of the actual live fight cards.
That's once more than I ever did. The difference though is I do care. This is good news actually because scrubs will no longer get fights with title holders and #1 contenders just because they've made a name for themselves on the "Contender".:clap: Good ridance.
yeah unfortunately scrubs getting tittle shots has been happening in boxing way before the contender came along.
TUF is far better produced, directed, thought out. The Contender didn't do anything for Brian Vera. TUF, like UFC, is a piece of shit when it comes to fucking their fighters financially and Dana White is a bitch.
Do U HONESTLY Think Brian Vera would have EVER Gotten an FNF Televised Bout vs. Andy Lee (or ANYBODY Else), if NOT for his BRIEF Appearance on "The Contender"???:dunno: ... REED
Of course. He was undefeated. You think getting blown out in 12 seconds helped him? . Alright. It may have helped him get a shot because he was seen as a no-hope piece of crap, but that really can't be what you are arguing, I hope?
Well, REED is Thinking "The Contender" Staff was PRIVY to some of Vera's DFW Footage... So his BLOWOUT Loss to Codrington OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T Disqualify him from Meaningful ESPN bouts... The Network WANTED to Hype Andy Lee, they Figured Vera would B an EASY, yet Credible Mark (Peep Teddy Atlas' OWN Remarks Regarding the Bout)& it Blew Up N their Faces... Bottom Line...Brian Vera's a MIDDLEWEIGHT...Jaidon Spanked him @ 168... REED
I wouldn't say it's less cheesy. On the last TUF that dude wantd to go home because he was away from his girl. J-dogs own Dad died and he stayed on the show and contributed a FOTY candidate in the final.
....i think he means from a production standpoint. i haven't seen TUF but the contender is very formulated and is packed with product placement.....and the fight scenes are made to look like Rocky and often distorts the reality. For all that, i quite liked it. You'd get some very interesting chracters and rivalries would form. What i won't miss about the contender, is seeing the contestants continue to fight on the same cards long after the series is over....and of course guys like Manfredo getting a title shots off the back of the fame that the show gave them
TUF was really just a theme borrowed from the WWF show, which I think began on MTV...which were both basically outgrowths of Real World. The Contender/Next Great Champ were both basically watered down boxing versions of a show that was a take off of another show that was a take off of another show. The problem with it, from my standpoint, was that while it was supposed to help bring in new fans it did little to attract/keep the attention of boxing fans. Boxing fans knew most of the "contenders" on the show weren't, and most weren't even A or B list prospects. Boxing fans knew they weren't seeing future stars. Plus, the boxing matches they did show were way too stylized and produced....and the fights were shorter than they'd normally be in. So the supposed "reality show" failed in large part because it wasn't authentic enough. Furtheremore, most boxers that entered show werent novices to boxing. They had experience and began pro careers. It's not like a lot of them needed to be shown techniques and what not. Boxing is so specialized and compared to MMA, so limited, that I think that also hurt the show. There's more facets to competing in MMA, plus you have athletes with far different backgrounds (wrestling, bjj, etc.) that there's a little more the viewer can draw from the training sessions. Plus, being that the TUF contestants were younger and less refined...and on cable...they're able to act out - "entertain" - much more than the professional boxers on a channel like NBC or ESPN. If they wanted to produce a real boxing reality show, I think there's a few ways it could actually be done. One would be to pick out a gym, like Freddie Roach's, and simply film it and him for a period of time. Show some of the day to day stuff, from the businessmen who come in to work out to the professionals like Pacquiao preparing for a big fight. You can get interviews and personal clips of their family life or whatever. But show something authentic and interesting to boxing fans. If they wanted to show some real potential "contenders" pick out some of the standout U.S. amateurs from the Olympic games and have them agree to be filmed for a period of a few months to a year as they go through the promotional process, turn pro, get some fights under their belts, etc. Show their family life...sorta like a 24/7 style documentary. Neither are likely, but they're just ideas. Whatever the case, this one-size-fits-all of taking athletes, putting them in a house and following them doesn't really work for a sport as individualized as boxing.
