First, as we all know I am not a writer. I am simply a fan, a boxing fan who is so outraged I don’t know how to handle it. Many of you know of and have followed the reality series “The Contender”. On Saturday night at the Staples Center ESPN had the “rematches” and some other fighters from the show. First, the show didn’t even start until after 11:30pm on the east coast. At first I was very upset about this because many people couldn’t and wouldn’t stay up to watch the main event between Sergio Mora and Peter Manfredo Jr. When the main event ended at 2:30am, I was actually happy that this card went unwatched by many of the general public.
The second televised fight of the night was a rematch between Anthony “#1 Daddy” Bonsante and Jesse Brinkley. In their first fight Bonsante was dominating Brinkley through the first 4 rounds before Brinkley caught Bonsante with a HUGE uppercut to end the fight. Saturday night, Bonsante again dominated Brinkley, but this time he didn’t get caught by a big uppercut. Actually he didn’t get hit by pretty much anything the whole fight. At the end of the last round I quickly ran upstairs to make another drink and grab something to eat. I figured there was no reason to actually listen to the decision, and I could be back in time for main event. However, when I got back downstairs I heard the judges gave Jesse Brinkley the unanimous decision win! I was floored. I swore the announcers had just messed up the fighters names. But no, apparently the 58 punches that Jesse landed in the whole fight were somehow good enough for these obviously blind judges to give him the victory. Disgusting.
In the main event, Sergio Mora (the contender champ) would face Peter Manfredo Jr. in the much anticipated rematch. This fight started just like the last one ended. Two guys throwing a ton of punches and making this fight simply amazing to watch. Manfredo threw a bomb of a right hand that opened a huge cut over Mora’s left eye in the first round. The cut seemed to spark Manfredo from then on as he continued to out box and out punch Mora. In their 8 rounds Mora won 2 of those, possibly 3. Peter was landing power punch after power punch. It seemed that he learned from his mistakes in their first fight and developed a great plan on how to win this fight. Mora’s corner did a good job keeping that cut from getting any worse and letting the fight continue.
At the end of eight rounds, it was time for the announcement of the anti-climatic decision. Manfredo would be the new contender champ. But WAIT, the ring announcer reads the scores… the first judge scores the fight 77-75 for Mora, the second judge scores the fight 77-75 for Manfredo (okay, maybe that first judge was a little drunk), and the third judge scores the fight 77-75 for MORA! I honestly couldn’t believe it. The judges had managed to steal wins away from two fighters. This fight wasn’t even close. The commentators also couldn’t believe what they had just heard and saw. Manfredo also was in total shock and had no idea what to do or say. He was openly pissed, and had every right to be. He obviously wasted a lot of time and energy training for this fight. He would have been better off drinking beer and eating pizza for the last 3 months. Either way, he never had a chance to win the fight.
Could these fights really have been fixed? Were the outcomes of these fights pre-determined unless there was a knockout? Could the sport I love so much be this corrupt? I don’t have the answers for this sport, but with video replays of these fights, something should be done. I guess the Contender reality series wasn’t so real after all. Or was it? Did we just get a scary look at the way boxing truly is?
