About two years ago The Contender, the Mark Burnett-produced boxing competitive reality show, moved from NBC to ESPN. After the second season on the popular sports network and the UK vs. USA challenge this spring, it was still up in the air whether the show would continue. Luckily, for those fans of boxing out there, ESPN has ordered up a third season of the show.The premiere is actually coming up very soon: Sept. 4. So you won't have to wait too long if you are ready to see some amateur meat machines bash the snot out of each other.
The move was smart on ESPN's part. The second season finale fight between Grady Brewer and Steve Forbes drew over 2 million viewers to become the channels top-rated boxing broadcast in almost a decade.
The new season will feature 16 super middleweight fighters vying to be crowned champion and part of a million dollar purse (last season featured lighter welterweight boxers). The legendary Sugar Ray Leonard will be back as host and coach.
One thing that is interesting to note; Oscar De La Hoya, who hosted the failed Fox version of The Contender is slated to make a guest appearance. Hopefully he remembers to say The Contender and not The Next Great Champ on the outro. Boxing has a tendency to mess with the brain.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-07-2007 @ 6:50PM
Matt said...
Here's a list of the participants:
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnist=rafael_dan&id=2959700
It's a step up in quality from last season, although the show has gone from being focused on younger fighters to mixing in established guys looking for another big shot.
I don't want a lot of reality programming but this is what I think is the ultimate reality show: at the end of each episode two guys get to beat up on eachother.
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