THE CONTENDER BLEW IT!
On the Contender Rematch there were three fights, two questionable decisions, and one big loser. The big loser I'm referring to is boxing. The Contender made people who were not boxing fans interested in the sport. Thanks to boxing once again shooting itself in the foot they've lost a golden opportunity to revive the sport. Well, maybe not revive but at least get some fans back. I know these fighters aren't elite, but aside from the decisions the boxing was pretty entertaining. Let's go through the problems together:

1. Only a moron like myself is going to stay up till 3am and watch boxing. If they couldn't put it on at decent hour move it on ESPN 2. The difference in households can't be that big.

2. What in the hell does Mario Lopez know about boxing? I quess Pauly Shore wasn't available. My mother could've asked more intriging questions. This disapoints me very much, because I thought it was a good idea to have the Friday Night Fights crew cover the event. Teddy Atlas is no Jim Lampley but he's also not Sylvester Stallone.(If you saw the first fight Stallone did the commentating and I think he was watching a different fight).

3. The Ref had no right to stop the fight btween Alfonso Gomez and the Little Dude. I do agree the guy was getting beat up, but he was still throwing bombs and might have landed one. That was the first sign the night would not go well.

4. Anthony Bonsante vs. Jesse Brinkly:
First, I would like to say that I was a Brinkly fan and a Bonsante basher on season one of The Contender. After watching Bonsante take the fight seriously and fight his heart out I've switched sides. I was borderline insulted by the way Brinkly carried himself in the ring, as if he didn't even care to be there. Bonsante out-boxed Brinkly for five straight rounds.(Put simply he beat the crap out of him). In the end a unanimous decision went to Brinkly. This was the worst decision I have ever seen! Brinkly in my opinion did not win 1 second of any round. I was flooded with phone calls asking if I believed what just happened.(When I say flooded I mean 3 people called me, I'm not that popular).

5. Peter Manfredo vs. Sergio Mora:
When this fight came around I knew there would be a bogus decision. I figured however it would go in Peter's favor because so far the other two fights went to fan favorites. Oh, I couldn't have been more wrong. Peter came out like a whole new fighter. He dominated Sergio for the first 4 rounds. When Sergio started to open up in the later rounds it didn't look like anything was landing. He was flashy enough to take rounds five, and eight in my opinion. To my surprise the judges had it the other way around for "The Latin Snake". My boss also thought Sergio won, and he knows boxing like I know competitive jump rope. So the majority decision went the home-town boy. His body language after the fight and before the decision showed he knew he lost even though he said otherwise to Peter.

When The Contender first aired I thought it was great for boxing. I've been a big boxing fan for a while now, but only know a few other hard-core fans. Once The Contender aired people who didn't even like boxing would talk to me about the show, and even showed interest in a few big fights on HBO and Showtime. The sad thing is that not only did The Contender lose some of it's fan-base, but it also turned people off the sport of boxing.