ESPN cancels the contender

I bet ESPN cancelled the series so they could buy some new lights for the Sportscenter set or something. :nut

It didn't do much for me, but it was a good way to give the sport some mainstream exposure. Oh, well. Hopefully, Spike or Versus will pick it up.

 

its sad when i don't even like the UFC really but i far prefer the ultimate fighter over the contender.

 

That sucks, if anything it was another night of boxing.

Most of the fights were quality too. Especially the final last year with Bika and Codrington

 

LOL!

 

The **** do you care who he marries? Maybe he's a MAN and is not shallow like you.

 

Chill out guy, it was joke, do you remember last year on ESB when someone did a thread on how ugly Bika's wife is? The guys a good fighter and I respect him for that, but he could do better looks wise, and when you put yourself on TV, your open to criticism, thats how it works.

 

My apologies then.

 

Its cool bro, I probably did go a little overboard with my comments, she's probably a real nice woman and has a great personality, if you seen his wife, you would be surprised, she looks alot older than him, and quite scary, at first I thought it was a friend of his or something, it was shocking to see her as is wife.

 

It was cancelled because the Promoter of the show and ESPN couldnt come to an agreement on the contract renewal. The promoter said they are close to signing a deal with another network, within a couple of days infact. There were talks of HBO wanting to do a Heavyweight Contender, so maybe HBO is just offering more money, or whoever

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=3340702

 

What with the talented pool of young heavyweights we have to draw from?


This is pretty surprising actually. :shock:

I'm ambivalent, I guess. Sure, there was a smidge of extra mainstream exposure for the sport, but not all attention is good attention. :yep Of the two seasons I followed (and I suspect both were far better than the first) I can count on one hand the number of actual good, interesting fights.

 

I never really got into the show. They showed too much drama and shortened up the fights. Whats up with the slow motion during the fight too.
I just want to watch the whole fight not just highlights of it.
And in reality most of those guys have been chumps other than Gomez and hmm maybe Forbes who was over quailified for the show.

IF someone picks this up i hope they can get some good prospects on there.
How bout picking up some of the worlds best undefeated or close to fighters then making them go against each other.

Of course this would never happen because their promoters would not let them.

 

That's kind the way I looked at it too. I HATED the way they edited fights and put sound effects and **** in, but at least it was more boxing on TV. And it did give exposure to the sport.

 

I was never really hyped on The Contender (but I liked the 1st season and the 3rd wasn't bad) but it's good for boxing as it turns the non-hardcore to our sport.

It's very strange that after the Bika-Codrington impossibly great fight and The Condender fighters appearing in major networks (Manfredo: vs. Calzaghe and Lacy, Gomez: vs. Gatti and Cotto, Mora: vs. Forrest etc) ESPN just shuts down.

Or is it GBP and Top Rank who are forcing the show to appear on bigger boxing network like Showtime or HBO? I hope so, however the best thing would be free TV.

Does anyone know what weight-class they are plannding for season4?

 

I enjoyed the first series due to it being one of the first programmes of its type broadcast in Britain but since then the competion and programme has gone down hill.

The main part of boxing is the fights but we were constantly only shown highlights of the fights and had to endure the awful sound effects. I had too many reservations with the programme I hardly watched the last series.

Hopefully something else in a similar vain will come along but minus all the bull****.