The Contender
I caught the 2-hour live finale of The Contender last night, and it was great to see Sergio Mora take home the $1 Million and yet another Toyota Tacoma. I’d followed much of the season with Bunky, and although I thought Peter would win (prior to the match), I was rooting for Sergio. Surprisingly, Peter managed to execute his gameplan flawlessly, and yet it was completely ineffective. Despite being cinched and tied up by Peter for much of the match, Sergio actually did his best work up close with his back against the ropes. The flurry of body shots and combinations really wore Peter down, and by the last three rounds, it looked like he was barely standing. I think a few more rounds and Sergio would have knocked Peter out. I guess the combination of Sergio’s impressive elusiveness, his range, quickness, and unorthodox style really took made it hard for Peter to land powerful blows.
The undercard bout of Alfonso against Jesse was quite good as well, and Alfonso did a great job landing body shots and taking advantage of Jesse’s complete lack of a game plan beyond trying to land a lucky uppercut. As one of the smaller boxers, Alfonso usually absorbs a lot of damage even in his wins, but by the end of the 5 round match, he looked virtually untouched. Jesse’s spastic trainer was good for a laugh.
The rest of the show was somewhat botched. The cuts to commercials were handled really badly, and they really messed with the flow of the show. The other three “fan-favorite” bouts looked really pathetic, and thankfully were shown for only a total of about 20 seconds. It wasn’t until halfway through the second one that I realized that this was new footage. Anyway, I hear there won’t be a second season, and in some ways I’m glad. Sly and Sugar were affable hosts, and the fights were pretty interesting, but I’m not sure it would have worked more than once. The general campiness of the show was funny, but the challenges were really stupid, and the last few episodes really struggled to fill the whole hour with interesting information (towards the end there were not as many challenges, since the matches had been decided). In spite of that, I did enjoy the season, and the last fights in the finale were entertaining, even if the extraneous bits were rather sloppy. If you want a play by play for the final episode (well… sorta), check out what the Sports Guy had to say about it.
By the way, I’m really looking forward to Making the Band: Season 3/Part 2 or whatever they are calling it!
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By teahouseblossom, 5/26/2005 @ 11:25 am
I never watched that show, but I thought it was a good concept. Sounds like it was entertaining.
By Velius, 5/26/2005 @ 1:50 pm
I still think my idea for a reality TV show would be a big hit. Strand 30 vicious criminals on an island and supply each of them with an arsenal. Last person standing wins a gatorade!