The Contender-Petition to bring it back!
 

I'm not sure who watched the Contender, but if you didn't you sure missed out. There were some serious battles going on, especially the last two fights. Please sign the petition to help bring it back. NBC has chosen not to bring it back in the fall.


http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?wato

I really didn't like the lack of technical boxing I saw in the one match I did see. It was like either person could hit at will because the other person didn't know how to hold their arms up.

Whatever the boxing lacked in technique, it made up for in action. If I want to see another drawn out 12 round hugfest, I'll pony $50 for two no-names on par-per-view. Professional boxing could learn a few things from that show.

Its truly entertaining, Im just saying they should attempt to acquire technique before diving into a nationally televised fight.

I don't know which fights you saw. There were some that were definate duds, but others that were really good. Some of those guys are good boxers. I think the fact that they were 5 round fights made some of the guys abandon defense in exchange for offense/scoring. It's hard to make up ground with only 5 rounds, so you have to be aggressive.

I think the show was on the border of being great. A little bit of tweaking could get it there. I got the impression that there weren't enough people involved that knew what makes TV work. If they can polish the 20% of it that was really bad, it would be a great show.

My wife and I flew into Vegas Monday night for the Finale on Tuesday. We paid $1500 for a pair of tickets and it was worth every penny! Not only was the fight awesome, we met many of the fighters, took pics and hung out. Jesse was particularly cool, and Sergio's mother, Jimmy Lang and Peter Manfredo were all extremely nice. I also met Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns and shared a few drinks with some movie celebs afterwards.

Sergio was the man I picked to win the tournament from his first fight. He will be a world champion for a long time to come. He has it all; Brains, body, skill and most importantly, desire. It was really a great event and I think there will be another "Contender" Tournament this summer.

Dane

I think it was a good show, and would love to see it have another season.

Sergio is a unique fighter with an unorthodox style and I'm assuming he'd fight around 160?

I don't see him beating the likes of Vargas, Trinidad, Wright. Hopkins is the champ but just doesn't ever look that impressive to me.

Sergio may not be able to take those guys right now (he's only 25), but he will be a champion. With the exposure of this show, he will get a world championship trainer and training facilities. I think he'll eventually be a light heavyweight because his body has so much room for growth. He's so long and lean surprisingly, looked much bigger and stronger in person (though I towered over all the guys because I'm 6'2, especially my man Jesse).

After watching the fights on Tivo when we returned from Vegas, I was immediately shocked at NBC's production poor values (which shouldn't be surprising because I always thought that their coverage of the AFC looked like crap). The ref kept getting in the way, the lighting was poor and there just weren't enough camera angles. In addition, Sergio freakin' OWNED Manfredo in person, but that wasn't as evident when watching it on TV. They also didn't catch all the nonsense that was going on between Manfredo's girlfriend & Dad that was directed at Sergio. And though Sergio apologized at the end, Manfredo's camp should have apologized as well.

I wish that I would have bought tickets for the Bronze medal round, because even though Jesse was my favorite personality on the show, I think Alfonso has a great future ahead of him. And with NBC renewing shows like Average Joe, I can't understand why they wouldn't renew The Contender, though NBC Prez Jeff Zucker was present at the fights. But decisions like putting The Contender in a bad time slot, then not renewing it is probably why they're the 4th place network.

Dane

I was going to say, that out of all of them, I think Alphonso will move down to his natural weight and make some noise.

If nothing else, this show brought some boxing back into the mainstream. Considering the Pathetic crop of HWTs right now, hopefully more people will come to appreciate the lighter guys........you never see a fight as good as the ward-Gatti fights at hwt.

I wish they'd have shown the Bronze fight as the undercard, and cut out some of the add sales bullshit, and worthless sly-time.

You didn't see the Bronze fight undercard? They showed it as tape delayed during the 2 hour broadcast. It was extremely close, one point on every judge's score card. Jesse waited about 20 seconds too late to begin his attack, because he really caught Alfonso at the end!

And I agree about Sly. I love the guy, but I'm glad we didn't have to hear his nonsense during the fight at Caesar's. That was pretty annoying.

as usual the shows i like get cancelled :(

yes alot of it was corny but the fights were for the most part awesome since you knew more about the guys fighting and what it meant to them.

I saw the tape delayed undercard...I was really pulling for Brinkley, but it was hard not to root for both of those guys. He sure did nail Alphonso at the end when he raised his hands too early....He could have won that fight, but just wasn't aggressive enough. He's going to have to find some dedication to training if he's going to do anything professionally.

Stallone gave some celeb credit to the show during the season, but he should have stepped away from the Mic during the broadcast.........


I'd have liked to see that fight ref'd by Judge Mills Lane.

Most of these guys at least should be able to get some better fights because of the name recognition.

It's stupid that their not bringing it back.

I flipped through a couple of pages of the sigs just for grins.....one caught my eye

a guy signed that they were stupid for not having a second season, because he was enjoying a cool sierra mist, without the aftertaste and off to check out some Toyota Tacomas.

I liked the show quite a bit. My personal favorite was Anthony. Just liked his personality. I absolutely hated Sergio. All he did was talk trash. He backed it up in the end, but I really stopped pulling for him when he ran from Jessie the entire last round before the Championship.

Hope they decide to bring it back.