I watched The Contender last night and witnessed some of the WORST commentaries in boxing. Holy crap Sylvester Stallone is an idiot. IMHO, the entire fight was pretty damn lop-sided, in favor of Sergio. Yet, Sylvester insisted that it was hard to tell, down to the last round, might be a draw yadi yadi, even in the sixth round! WTF? I was thinking, dude, are you BLIND??? Do you KNOW boxing?
You can tell Sugar Ray was trying hard not to point out how wrong Sylvester was by saying diplomatic things like “well, I think Sergio might be up just a bit” or “Sergio landed a few more bit punches” just so he doesn’t embarrass Sylvester…
Sylvester kept saying how he’d love to see a rematch, why??? This was about as lop-sided as the Tyson vs. Lewis fight! Anyhow, maybe I am being too critical (and yes, it IS just a “reality tv show”) but I just took offense to how horrible the commentaries were and how it sacrificed good intense boxing for some stupid tv show promotion/dramatization. Bluh.
I’m with ya man. That was THE cheesiest boxing commentary I’ve ever heard. Anybody who watched that fight, especially those that had never seen either fighter and had biases, could tell that Sergio clearly out-boxed Jr.
How’d you like the “Here’s your.(short awkward pause)…belt” comment. That was priceless. The tone in his voice showed that even Sly realized how cheesy that was.
In my opinion, this reality show was degrading to boxing. I’m glad that it won’t be on next season. As much as I like to watch boxing, that show was worthless.
It was obvious that Sly was trying to fool the viewer into thinking it was a “great” match… I believe he has a large financial stake in the show and wants to keep buildup for follow on opportunities…
He must have called for a rematch 15 times… It is all about the money!
He was either under contract or had a big stake in a rematch. Though it is unethical and makes you look like a tool, most people would say that fight was close if they were paid a million dollars to do so.
It was clear that Sergio won. No way I would even bother to watch a rematch. Castillo and Corales however would be a thing of beauty.
I think he was trying to build up a mediocre fight. Compared to the Ultimate Fighter finals, this was a joke, and I think Sly knew that. This was a big budget show that needed a big budget finale. It just wasn’t there.
Come on. Don’t bust on the Contender. Overall this was an excellent show. I thought both the Alfonso-Jesse and Sergio-Peter fights were pretty good fights.
I can’t be the only hardcore fan of the Contender. Especially on this site. Most of the ratings consisted of the male 18-34 demographic.
However I do agree about the Stallone commentary, it sucked.
Of course he thought it was an even fight, every single Rocky film feaures him getting pounded for the entire fight only to win at the end - as far as he was concerned, it was going well
[quote]randman wrote:
Come on. Don’t bust on the Contender. Overall this was an excellent show. I thought both the Alfonso-Jesse and Sergio-Peter fights were pretty good fights.
I can’t be the only hardcore fan of the Contender. Especially on this site. Most of the ratings consisted of the male 18-34 demographic.
However I do agree about the Stallone commentary, it sucked.[/quote]
I just remember liking the book a lot more than I did the show.
Does anyone remember the book? Kind of a Rocky-type story. I remeber being so engulfed in the book once that I forgot where I was and ripped a huge fart in the middleof English class.
I was also a big fan of the show. I’m so glad that Gomez got $200k and a car - he’s a real stand-up guy.
Stallone probably shouldn’t have done the play-by-play but that aside, I loved the show. Calling him an idiot because he’s not a good ringside commentator is unfair. I thought he was personable and he related well with the fighters throughout the taping of the show. BTW, how many millions do you have?
He was hyping the fight, it’s his show, his future etc.
He wrote a script as a nobody and became an instant star. Rocky 1 won an Academy award.
He went on to have a very big career in film. He is a multi millionaire and now he has his own TV show. On top of that he is 58 years old and looks to be in incredible physical condition!
Maybe he is not the best at calling a fight (while I think it was mostly hype) he is surely NOT AN IDIOT!
[quote]JuliusA wrote:
I was also a big fan of the show. I’m so glad that Gomez got $200k and a car - he’s a real stand-up guy.
Stallone probably shouldn’t have done the play-by-play but that aside, I loved the show. Calling him an idiot because he’s not a good ringside commentator is unfair. I thought he was personable and he related well with the fighters throughout the taping of the show. BTW, how many millions do you have? [/quote]
Okay, let me qualify that, he was an “idiot at commenting on the fight” how’s that? I didn’t bother elaborating on his life outside of just that one episode and took it for granted that people would assume that I was referring to him as an idiot WITHIN the realms of this show and more specifically with his commenting on that last episode. Obviously, I was wrong in my assumption, hopefully I clarified. And I still stand by my statement he’s an idiot at commenting on the fight.
As for how many millions I have, WTF does that have to do with anything??? Are you implying that it’s okay to sell out just for the money or it’s okay for him to be an idiot at commenting on the fight BECAUSE he has millions? Homie don’t play that…
[quote]ZEB wrote:
He was hyping the fight, it’s his show, his future etc.
He wrote a script as a nobody and became an instant star. Rocky 1 won an Academy award.
He went on to have a very big career in film. He is a multi millionaire and now he has his own TV show. On top of that he is 58 years old and looks to be in incredible physical condition!
Maybe he is not the best at calling a fight (while I think it was mostly hype) he is surely NOT AN IDIOT![/quote]
The commentary was annoying. Stalones voice is like fingernails on the chalkboard. That said…
It was not THAT onesided of a fight. Jr. pushed the tempo, he had Sergio on the ropes the whole fight. I would guess that Jr. threw nearly twice as many punches, but 90% of them hit Sergio in the arms and gloves. Sergio threw alot of flurries and was on the button. He was ready to knock Jr. out at the end. I would say that 3-4 rounds were close until the last twenty seconds, and then Sergio stole them with flurries.
I really enjoyed the show. Of course it is extremely edited, but I was very impressed with the maturity, respect, and humility of those young men. With the exception and Ahmad and Ishe, they were very likeable young men. As far as production goes, it made the ultimate fighter look like Waynes World.
[quote]Mike Mahler wrote:
DO yourself a favor and get rid of cable for a month and you will be amazed by how much more you get done and how little you miss TV. TV sucks! [/quote]
Well, if you’re watching six hours of TV a day then you’re right. If you’re letting it get in the way of your goals then you’re right. If you’re using TV as an escape from the real world instead of dealing with you’re problems head on then you’re right.
On the other hand, when I put my son to bed at night there is not much I really want to accomplish in my life from 8 to 10 pm at night. Especially since TIVO, I can watch the shows I want to watch when I want to watch them.
