In a world where reality tv shows plague mankind, one can not help but groan at the prospect of another concept hitting the tv screen, and hit a show finally has, with such force and blinding speed that it'll leave your legs wobbly. That show, is The Contender.

The Contender is basically about a bunch of up-and-coming boxing stars, trained by the great 'Sugar' Ray Leonard, and the 'Italian Stallion' himself, Sylvester Stallone. These 16 fighters are teamed up into two groups, with one fighter from each team battling it out once a week. The fighter who wins, stays on. The fighter who loses, has to go home, winning nothing, gaining nothing.

Let me just say, that the whole concept is fantastic, and the emotion, fury, and suprise throughout those first two episodes, has provided for some VERY entertaining tv. In short, I absolutely love it.

Keep an eye out for it when it hits Aussie tv.

No. :P

Seriously though, I'm not watching any more Reality TV...

Oh, I was the same, but this isn't the norm of reality tv. Maybe it's just because i'm a fan of boxing, but this was exciting, genually suprising, and quite emotional.

I really do recommend it.

Well, if you recommend it so heartily, I might give it a look.

Well, having just watched episodes 3 & 4, I have to say that this is my favourite show ever!

Big call, but there's so much emotion, and edge of your seat entertainment, that it's just so damn compelling. No other show lets you have a look at people in a situation, then actually battle it out with each other later on.

Awesome!

Do we see tough, muscle-bound boxers cry? ;)
I've heard of this show and it sounds interesting. I'll keep an eye out.

Yes, yes you do.

Emotion aplenty!

They better play "Eye of the Tiger" in there somewhere...

They should, but don't.

Saw episode 7 last night. Man, this just keeps getting better.

Yeah, I watch it too. Its sad that Narjai died though. And who would have predicted that "comeback" (I'm not gonna spoil it this time).
I think Eye of the Tiger will be played in the final bout.

They had an interview with some big boxing dude from the US on the radio, SEN 1116, who wrote Ali's latest biography, and he was just bagging the shit out of it. Some of what he said:

1 - Narjai didn't just die, but he shot himself in the head. The producers of the show completely disregarded this, and put some bull shit comment at the end of the show. I'm led to believe that they didn't even mention that he suicided? Before the contestants went on the show, they were made to fill out a psych test. All of the contestants, except for 1, got a 6 - which indicated that they'd cope with the stress of the show excellently. However, Narjai was the odd one out as he only got 3 - which meant that he would more than likely have difficulty dealing with the shit. The producers should be held responsible, in some part, IMO.

2 - It's rating at 5 million viewers, whilst Survivor is somewhere close to 40 million.

3 - He also said that it's, obviously, nowhere near reflective of what real fighters go through. Living in a cushy apartment, not having to worry about where your next buck is coming from etc. He basically called them all nancy boy pussies.

4 - The producers claim that one of the boxers is the next big thing, as he had won, prior to joining the show, 20 fights out of 2. 16 of those 20 wins were against peeps who had never even won a fight.

5 - The fighters are not allowed to fight til May 2005. Thus, they will have been out of work for close to a year. They knew this before coming onto the show, sure, but the producers of The Contender still sound like the biggest wankers!

Yes, but its fun to watch big muscular men beat the crap out of each other! :dance2:

Let's dissect this, as someone who has actually watched what it offers so far:

Ok, yes it is true that Najai did kill himself. Yes, it is true that he was a little too quiet, and yes, it is true that at the end of the episode where he fights, they mention that he passed away, and were setting up a trust fund for his daughter, but detailing how he died (suicide) would just not have been right. It wasn't a matter of covering their arses, people who wanted to know how he died would find out with ease, but more a matter of tact. I don't know how responsible anybody should be for his death. It's suicide.

This show doesn't and won't appeal to the amount of people survivor will. It's a boxing thing, and most people are deterred for that fact alone. It's so much more though, but it's pretty easy to assume the amount of people interested in the show, because of what it's about, would be far less than survivor. I still think it's an excellent show, and one of, if not, my favourite ever.

They are real fighters. They have gone through the shit that this loser speaks of. So, while they're on the show, they've got a pretty swank apartment, so what. I'd hardly call any of them nancy boy pussies though, just because the show has decided to give them the best of the best while they are in it.

As is the case with most boxers out there. A fight is still a fight, and if you're a professional boxer, and you're arranged to fight someone, it means shit all whether they have the ability to take down a truck or an ant. They were chosen to compete against each other, nuff said. These guys are pretty damn good boxers and athletes, so I don't know why that dude is so quick to write them off.

I don't understand what you mean, or where you are going with this. So they wrote up a contract that forbids them from fighting till the show is over. It doesn't prevent these guys from going back to the jobs they had while fighting though.

I'd debate this further, but I haven't actually seen the show, so it'd be a bit groundless. I look forward to watching it, though. It must be said that the guy did sound like he had a personal vendetta against the show, so maybe he was just talking crap.

Still, from where I'm sitting, if the producers knew, from the tests, that he most probably wasn't going to cope with the stress, then they shouldn't've got him on the show.

Yeah, well if that was the case, then they probably shouldn't have.

Anyway, we'll talk more once you've seen it ;)