Boxers from the Contender shows...

Brian Vera?

 

I've seen Bravo, steve forbes, and mike stewarts names come up recently on small cards. By recent I'd say last 6 months.

 

Mike Clark

 

Ahmed Kaddour

 

Besides the names above, Joey Gilbert, Sakio Bika, Sam Soliman, Paul Smith, Jimmy Lange, Jesse Brinkley, Juan De La Rosa, and Troy Ross are still boxing with widely varying degrees of success. The Contender was ideally designed to show that boxers were "people" by getting into the family aspect of each fighter and showing their personalities in a reality show atmosphere, it was basically Sly's labor of love while he was trying to make a comeback in popularity after a string of movie flops. I think they hoped that the fighters involved would have championship potential but weren't counting on it. And to be fair, though opportunistic, some of the fighters did. Sergio Mora and K-9 Bundrage both have won world titles, though Mora's win was more due to that Forrest took him lightly and didn't have much in the ring in their first fight, and K-9 just was lucky enough to be the one to get the chance against a shot, light-punching champion in Spinks. Alfonso Gomez, Ishe Smith, Jesse Brinkley, Peter Manfredo, Troy Ross, and Sakio Bika are fringe world class fighters and could win a belt given the right circumstances a la Mora and K-9. None of the fighters on the show were going to move on to be dominant champs though, and that was clear.

 

Wasn't Paul Smith in one of them too?

 

Nobody ever thought any Contender winners were supposed to go on to become champs (except maybe Ross).

Forbes, who was a former champ himself, is easily the best prime-for-prime boxer to ever appear on the show but was already past it by the time he did (and was up against much bigger men). He's still around.

 

Yes. He showed well on there too. If I remember right he only had to drop off due to a cut that could no way heal in time for the schedule of fights.

Anybody know how he's doin now?

 

That's actually inaccurate, pipe.

His performance wasn't dominant enough to advance. He beat David banks in a competitive split decision, and the tournament rules stated that winning alone was not enough to progress. You had to rank higher on their power board by either scoring a knockout or winning by more collective points on the judges' cards. So he was eliminated without ever losing, simply for not being dominant enough in his lone victory and thus not rating on their power board.

It was somebody else who had to drop out due to cuts.

 

Jaidon Codrington was a big prospect before the show.

 

More like before he got knocked out in around 15 seconds by Allan Green.

 

:good

The Contender was supposed to be his rebound opportunity. That opportunity ground to a halt about halfway through the Bika fight.

 

otis griffin

 

Ryan Coyne (season 4) is on his way to being a contender...

Jaidon (season 3) made his comeback at light heavy..

Sam Soliman (season 3) got a fight in April...

Felix Cora (season 4) just fought in Germany

Ding a ling man just lost to Travis Walker....