The Aussie "Contender" series.... Fighters announced

With the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.... A match up with Mundine....FFS!atsch
The Contender is here

• August 29, 2009 12:00AM
• Contender ... Sonni Michael Angelo. Source: FOX SPORTS

SONNI Michael Angelo is surrounded by fire.

It's what keeps him safe when police bullets whiz by. When punches are traded with a Silverwater jailer. When he spends four months surviving among the gangs and undesirables of Villawood detention centre.
A mysterious force born the day he saw his parents murdered in the Congo.
"My mother and father, yes, I saw them slain at 17,'' says this African warrior all shaved head and imposing physique.
"It was war, my father a diplomat, I had already seen a lot of my friends die.
"But what happened to me, it made me. Put that fire around Sonny Michael Angelo.''
This is the real reason "Jungle Boy'' is here.
Here inside this makeshift gym where fighters sweat, Johnny Lewis barks instructions and the only fakes are the faded newspaper clippings adorning the walls. Where 14 warriors are vying for the title of Australia's inaugural The Contender crown.

Which is why you need to look beyond the cameras that pop from everywhere like short rights. Beyond Sonni's leopard skin boots, modest 15-8-2 record and penchant for dropping to all fours after a win, roaring like he was straight from pages of The Jungle Book .
Because the real heartbeat of this Fox8 series is the grit beneath the grandstanding. An earthiness that drips from every battered fist.
For proof, speak with Muslim fighter Nader Hamdan, who describes one more shot at Mundine as "my destiny''.
Or Garth Wood, the former Souths fullback whose recent marriage breakdown sent him spiralling into a depression where tears fell for hours at a time.
"It was heavy,'' he shrugs. "I was crying every day, seeing a counsellor and the medication, mate, it seemed to work in reverse. But this competition ... yeah, it's bringing me out the other side.''
There's Pradeep Singh, the Indian amateur who trained 17 hours a day and won 125 of 127 fights. Who even now refuses to miss a 4am yoga session and, despite having never had a girlfriend, insists he will be married by 30 ... as world middleweight champion.
"Because to succeed,'' he says, "you must first sacrifice everything.''
It's a mantra repeated by Kenyan Kariz Kariuki, the fighter who sought asylum in Australia after the 2000 Sydney Olympics. And Russian Victor Oganov, handpicked to come Down Under by Kostya Tszyu.
It's why you'll hear about Israel "Cobra'' Kani owning pet snakes. Luke Maloney having Grub and Loyalty tattooed beneath his lips. Mt Druitt's Josh Clenshew will be "Chainsaw'' while Bondi Christian Ben McCulloch, who gave up his vegan ways to become a boxer, will play the hippie.
But to a man they can fight.
It's why Junior Talipeau is undefeated in all 14 professional bouts and Les "Diamond'' Piper boxed the night before his wedding. And as for Adrian Taihia, well, he had Kiwi officials scouring the record books after knocking Blair Seagar cold in 12 seconds last year.
And then there's the Jungle Boy. This extrovert whose colourful history includes brief stints in Silverwater and Parklea prisons on charges of aggravated sexual assault. "Eventually they took DNA swabs and had to release me,'' he says. "But not before I beat up a warder.'atsch

 

Ask and ye shall receive:deal

Adrian Taihai

Ben McCulloch

Daniel MacKinnon

Garth Wood

Israel Kani

Joseph Clenshaw

Junior Talipeau

Kariz Kariuki

Les Piper

Luke Moloney

Nader Hamdan...FFS!atsch

Pradeep Singh

Sonni Michael Angelo

Victor Oganov

Hope that helps

I don't know about Oganov and Hamdan.... Both have already had their chances

 

November... Fox8:deal

 

ARHHHH.... But it gives Mundine another excuse to avoid a halfway decent fighter:deal

 

They don't need to beat him mate...

Apart from the $25G's and other prizes they get for winning the Contender series...

The winner has been promised a purse of $250G's to fight Mundine....and that ain't hay