Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Reality show’s final bout packs a punch

Apparently there was something called "American Idol" on one of the other channels at 8 o'clock Tuesday night.

The millions of reality TV fans who tuned into that program instead of the finale of "The Contender" on NBC should re-examine their value system, posthaste.

They missed a scorcher of a middleweight fight.

Once they got past the prefight fits and starts, a strange rhythm dictated by the rigid schedule of live network television, Sergio Mora and Peter Manfredo Jr. put on a riveting show in the ring, with Mora pulling out a seven-round unanimous decision at Caesars Palace.

Long after the fight had ended, Mora, a 25-year-old from East Los Angeles who improved his pro record to 16-0 (3 knockouts), was showing off a cut above his left eye that was still bleeding.

There's your reality, he said.

"This is brutality," said Mora, who earned $1 million for the victory. "This is what we love to do. Don't take it away from us. Just pay us, and watch."

Hosted by Sylvester Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard, "The Contender" featured 16 middleweight fighters, most either young or lesser known in boxing, competing in a tournament for the top prize.

Tuesday night's episode was the first to show a fight in its entirety, as other matches throughout the season were heavily edited and included overdubbed sound effects.

The series was not a hit in the ratings and has not been picked up by NBC for next season, yet it did generate a loyal following: Tickets for Tuesday's finale at Caesars' events center sold out shortly after they were placed on sale last month.

Producer Mark Burnett, the Emmy Award-winning creator of "Survivor" and "The Apprentice," said he is not ready to throw in the towel on "The Contender."

"I've never had such pats on the back as I've had for 'The Contender,' " Burnett said Tuesday. "I'm totally committed to it. If NBC doesn't want to do it, we'll go somewhere else. ... The public wants more of these guys and our job is to provide it to them."

Though "The Contender" was able to draw roughly the same number of viewers as shows such as "Joey" and "Will and Grace," Burnett said, it would not command similar earnings from reruns or syndication.

"It's all about money," Burnett said. "Those (other) programs can make a lot of money for NBC in the future."

Leonard also expressed a desire to see "The Contender" live to fight another day.

"The goal of 'The Contender' is to create superstars, like boxing had in the '70s and '80s," Leonard said, referring to the likes of Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran and himself. "We want to enhance the careers of these fighters."

Mora and Manfredo -- or, as they're called in the stilted language of reality TV, "Sergio and Peter" -- certainly did their part in the action-filled finale.

Manfredo, 24, of Providence, R.I., kept the early rounds extremely competitive before tiring almost imperceptibly down the stretch.

"Fatigue's a big factor," said Manfredo (24-2, 10 KOs), who earned $250,000 for the bout. "Fighting before a big crowd on national TV before all them celebrities and everything, sometimes you can get out of your game a little bit."

Round 3 evoked the spirit of the great Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo fight from earlier this month, with Mora playing the role of the taller, rangier man who nonetheless deigns to mix it up on the inside and trade short, heavy blows.

Both fighters stayed busy throughout, though Mora never relented, keeping up the pressure until the final bell.

"For a tall, skinny fighter, people think they can bang my body, but I welcome them in," said Mora, who entered the ring a 6-5 favorite according to odds in the Caesars sports book.

Judge Duane Ford scored it 69-64 for Mora, Jerry Roth had it 68-65 and Paul Smith 70-63. The Sun scored it 70-63, awarding every round to Mora though several were quite close.

It was a little offputting, before the fight, to see the crowd of about 4,000 manipulated to chant or cheer on cue -- part of the trappings of airing a network TV show. (In fact, it was almost refreshing to hear one spontaneous chant emerge. It came from a portion of the audience whose view was temporarily blocked by an oversized promotional poster hanging from the rafters: "Move the banner! Move the banner!")

A commercial break between the fighters' introductions and the opening bell also felt unnatural.

The deafening ovation from the crowd at the fight's conclusion was heartfelt, however, needing no artificial prompting.

"There was a lot of (expletive) talk that it was my clever editing that made the fights exciting," Burnett said. "As you can see, the fights are even better live."

In other undercard action:

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