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The
Contender
First Episode
March 7, 2005
The first
episode of The Contender premiered Monday night. I was skeptical after Oscar’s
De Hoya’s bomb. I am happy
to report Sugar and Sly knocked it out of the ballpark. From the first moments,
it was clearly miles ahead out of Oscar’s and Fox, K-Mart Blue light special.
The show was simply better done.
Being
a professional sports writer, I’ve had the chance to meet many great fighters,
former champions and up and coming balls to the wall gung-ho wannabes.
The Contender clearly demonstrated superior planning, investment and
concept. It was bad enough that
Oscar and Fox TV allegedly stole Sly’s idea, it was so poorly done, it
actually hurt boxing. I still
can’t get the image of tattooed, crybabies balling their eyes out on national
TV. Talk about suffering from a loss of face. You’d of thought the editors
would have cut those scenes out. They should’ve.
I’ve
met Oscar on several occasions, I wanted to like him, but I gotta say he
didn’t impress me. Honestly, if
he’s not fighting, I got no use for the guy.
As far as I’m concerned, outside the ring he’s just another
Cinderella story. I am by no means minimizing his accomplishments, which are
many, but I’ve never been a groupie. I’ve
met hundreds of guys from East LA, they’re pretty much the same.
Every single one I met believed they were special. I’ve heard all their
stories, real and make believe. I’ve got nothing against them; I mean I like
good bullshit. It may be
entertaining, and it might even be funny, but when it’s all said and done, its
still bullshit. Having spent twenty years in the Military, I’ve had many
opportunities to hear real-make-believe stories in the barracks and in combat
zones. Oscar’s The Next Great
Champ was one of those real-make -believe stories.
I’m not saying he’s not a good human being, he might be a great
person, but the fans, including myself, will never have reason to care.
I’m glad he decided to enlist his former opponent, it was a good move.
Like they say if you can’t beat 'em, join ‘em.
As far as I’m concerned, I only relate to him when’s his fighting. I
was disappointed Oscar allowed Fox to use his name, his face, and his career to
launch a badly written, badly planned, and terribly edited, phony boxing realty
show. I love this game, and I
dislike anyone who would trash it. I mean the people inside of boxing do a
pretty good job of it themselves.
The
Contender demonstrated it was a cut above The Next Great Champ within in
minutes. The introduction by Sly, the setting, the challenge, the participants,
and the editing was superior. I was
disappointed, and very surprised Oscar would permitted so many Americans of
Mexican decent to be portrayed as cry baby wimps, so emotionally off balance,
they would actually cried on national TV. I
was embarrassed for them. Who ever
is responsible for the editing should have his ass kicked.
Coming from a tough neighborhood myself, those guys are gonna catch hell.
I can’t believe those guys made it past the screeners.
Were they looking for crybabies, wannabe tough guys?
Their boxing skills stunk. I’ve
actually seen several of them fight afterwards, and they were terrible. The guy
who won the whole thing has no fundamentals, and the dyed blond haired, tough
guy wanna be from Sacramento was so bad, the audience booed him when he fought
at ARCO Arena. His bout was called, a “novelty”
fight. It should have been called a tragic comedy.
I’ve
not met Sly, although I have met Sugar Ray.
I was more impressed with Sly’s behavior, and his demeanor.
He’s probably a down to earth guy, who honestly happens to like boxing.
I tip my hat to Sly for acknowledging he did not know enough about real
boxing to produce this kind of show. I
congratulate his efforts. Right On Big Guy.
Boxing fans were happily surprised the participants are actually licensed
boxers with note worthy records, not wannabe tough, tattooed phony baloney
crybabies. I tip my hat to Alfonso
Gomez who demonstrated so much courage it goes off the charts. His challenge and
defeat of a more experienced, supposedly (Peter Manfredo Jr.) better boxer has
set the stage for what appears to be a great boxing realty show.
The
idea of splitting the group of professional fighters into teams was a great
idea. As these guys will begin as
friends, and end up as opponents. The first challenge was also much better than
anything Oscar’s/ Fox show came up with.
I look forward to the next episode on Thursday. I would suggest the
editors go back and re-edit the filming so as to give viewers more of the fight,
and less of the drama afterwards. Everyone knows loosing sucks. Yet, someone’s
gotta loose. Once again, I sent a shout out to Sly for his courage and
willingness to risk his name.
If
you see Sly, give him a pat on the back for me. Oh yea, tell Sugar he did ok
too.
Life
I’ve said a millions times before. Thank God For Boxing.
Always
in Your Corner,
Jorge A. Martinez
Sportswriter/Trainer/Manager
dancingskyhorse@earthlink.net
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