To listen to all of what The Contender Promoter Jeff Wald has to say, listen to the 8CN Podcast
Since cruiserweight Troy Ross stopped Hino Ehikamenor in 4 rounds in February to win “The Contender” season 4 championship, little has been said about the shows future.
Executive Producer Jeff Wald recently joined 8countnews.com for a podcast interview and says he’s hoping for the show to return to a TV set near you soon.
“We’re talking to a variety of people”, said Wald, “The show refuses to die”.
The show last ran on the Versus network for its 4th season in late 2008, early 2009. ESPN televised seasons two and three in 2007 and 2006 respectively. Its initial outing in 2005 aired on NBC. There’s no word on who will televise the proposed 5th season of the program.
“The sponsorship is very weak out there for all of TV, whether it be CBS, NBC, or ABC”, said Wald, “You’ve lost General Motors, the 2nd biggest sponsor in television across the board. That’s 2.4 Billion Dollars that’s not there.”
Still Wald, a veteran TV producer and boxing promoter see’s the show moving forward somewhere.
“I think we would like (to begin shooting) in November. We have a deal with Foxwoods, who we’re very close to, where we would do the whole season at Foxwoods and then to air the show in 2010.”
Sugar Ray Leonard, who hosted the first three seasons of the show, will be returning has the shows host replacing Tony Danza who hosted season four.
Since the show began airing in 2005, it has produced many notable fighters.
Perhaps the show’s biggest success was season one winner Sergio Mora. Mora would go on to win a junior middleweight world title three years after his participation on the reality show. He was scheduled to challenge middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in June. However, a staph infection of Pavlik’s hand forced a cancellation of the bout.
Wald says he believes the fight will be rescheduled for September.
Season one runner-up Peter Manfredo Jr. challenged Joe Calzaghe for the world super middleweight championship after the show was done, losing via 3rd round TKO. The third place finisher Alfonso Gomez would find success scoring a crushing 7th round stoppage of faded fan favorite Arturo Gatti and then go on to challenge Miguel Cotto for a world title. He was stopped in that bout. Manfredo and Gomez are no longer under contract to the Tournament of Contenders, the promotional arm of the TV show.
“We’ve given (Manfredo) three major chances. The Calzaghe fight was a disaster. He never picked up his hands for three rounds and got stopped. It was an early stoppage but still it was a disaster. The Jeff lacy fight he was winning and then just seemed to go brain dead in the middle of the fight and lost a decision.” Wald said of Manfredo, “and then Sakio Bika knocked him out in the 3rd round in his hometown of Providence.”
Manfredo is now working with New England based promoter Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports and rebounded from the Bika loss with a 7th round KO of the Canadian based Walid Smitchet in Montreal.
Alfonso Gomez has since signed with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc.
“I like Alfonso Gomez. He’s one of my favorite fighters we ever had on the show”, Wald said, “I think the fight he needs to have is with Julio Cesar Chavez (Jr.) and he’s in the perfect place to get that with Bob Arum.”
Season 2 champion Grady Brewer next fights on August 22nd against Russian Zaurbek Baysangurov. Second season runner-up Steve Forbes has made a good account of himself fighting above his natural weight class of 140 pounds since coming off the show, losing a decision to the legendary Oscar De La Hoya in a 150 pound fight and titleholder Andre Berto in a 147 pound bout.
“He’s going to go down to 140. After he gets a couple of wins at 140 I’ll get him highly ranked and I believe there’s a fight there to be had with Victor Ortiz.”
Wald added, “Steve’s a champion at 140.”
Season three champion Sakio Bika, a super middleweight, has continued winning since the show ended most recently stopping fellow Contender alum Peter Manfredo Jr. in three rounds on national television. Despite looking impressive, Bika hasn’t fought since then.
“Nobody wants to fight him”, Wald said. He would add, “To me the fight that would really be something is (Librado) Andrade and Sakio Bika. I think that could be the 168 pound version of Gatti and Ward.”
Prior to being on the TV show, Bika had lost to world champ Joe Calzaghe and current titleholder Lucian Bute. Discussions for rematches of either of those fights haven’t gone far. Calzaghe has since retired.
Bika won the season three title by scoring an 8th round TKO over Jaidon Codrington in a classic all action brawl where both fighters hit the canvas and had to be taken to the hospital afterwards. Since losing to Bika, Codrington has fought just once struggling against journeyman William Gill in a light heavyweight fight. Gill entered the fight with Codrington sporting a record of 8-20 and had Jaidon hurt and in trouble at many points during their bout.
“Jaidon’s probably one of my two or three favorite fighters we’ve ever had on The Contender” said Wald.
“Between the (Allan) Green knockout and the Bika fight, that did him some damage so I told him quite bluntly, as his family had, that he should retire from boxing.”
Codrington has since applied to be a member of the Atlanta Police Department said Wald.
Season 4 champion Troy Ross may have the most potential of any fighter under the Contender promotional banner. Currently ranked in the top 10 by Ring Magazine, Ross will fight Michael Simms June 19th on the Adrian Diacanu – Jean Pascal undercard. The match will be televised on the Versus network.
Pending victory, Ross would like to fight cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek.
“He needs to get in a mandatory position to go take these champions down”, said Wald. He said discussions with Adamek promoter Kathy Duva of Main Events didn’t go far because they don’t want Adamek fighting a southpaw.
Other fighters retained under contract from The Contender: season 4 include “Hollywood” Hino Ehikamenor, Rico Hoye, Felix Cora Jr. and Alfredo Escalera.
Other alum from the show also continue to use the exposure gained on The Contender to further there career. Season one’s Jesse Brinkley and Joey Gilbert recently drew over 6,000 fans in Reno, NV. Jimmy Lange draws crowds in his home state of Virginia. Ishe Smith still gets TV exposure from time to time.
