The Contender is back from the Christmas break with episode 4. After a brief recap of what has gone down so far in the series, Danza meets with AK to give him his winner’s necklace. He says that last week’s fight was one of the best fights ever on the Contender. AK feels that the gold team can make a clean sweep from this point on, now that they can control which fights will be made.
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I bring to you, the first ever Fight Game Blog Awards. Since our website is unique in that we cover boxing, pro wrestling, and MMA, we have three different categories for awards.

In addition to our FGB brothers, Stevie J from Angry Marks is also giving his picks.

Pro Wrestling

Wrestler Of The Year
Big D - Edge
Alan - Shingo Takagi

Was given the ball in Dragon Gate due to top star CIMA being on the sidelines, and the company had it’s best business year ever. He was also outstanding in the ring and is full of charisma.

Duan - Jeff Hardy

This may not be a popular choice, but Jeff has really delivered main event quality matches this year, and he has now finally been given the chance to carry a world title. His ascension has helped freshen up a tired WWE main event scene, and the title change was executed perfectly.

I might’ve given up on WWE this summer if it weren’t for Chris Jericho. He and Shawn Michaels were the sole reason I bought any B shows this year.

Match Of The Year Continue Reading »

According to SC at Bad Left Hook, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer thinks that Ricky Hatton vs. Manny Pacquiao is close to a done deal and it’s likely to be held in Las Vegas.

The Contender is in the midst of its forth season now on the Versus network. This time 16 cruiserweights will battle it out for the honor of becoming Contender champion. The series was taped earlier this year out in Singapore . Tony Danza takes over hosting duties from Sugar Ray Leonard this season. The coaches are John Bray for the blue team and Tommy Brooks for the gold team.

We will join the show at episode 3 but first a quick recap of what has gone down so far. In the season premiere, 28 year old Felix Cora (18-2-2) of the blue team defeated Joell Godfrey to advance to the second round. Then last week, Alfredo Escalera jr. made it 2-0 for the blue team by defeating the brave but outmatched Jon Schneider. Escalera (15-1-1), who is the son of former super featherweight champion Alfredo Escalera sr, looked very good in his first outing on the show. 14 cruiserweights now remain.
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Ali or Tyson?

This fight is in Germany where it seems the Klitschko brothers fight all of their fights.

Lennox Lewis says Rahman has a fat chance to duplicate the efforts of when he upset Lewis himself many years ago.

Rahman changed trainers earlier this week according to Bad Left Hook. James “Buddy” McGirt is now his trainer.

1st Round
Rahman is crouched down a bit and trying to sneak his jab in. Klitschko is standing really tall and throwing the jab and the left hook. He landed a really nice right hand that staggered Rahman slightly. Rahman looks pretty confused in there already. For some reason, he’s holding his hands low after he throws a punch and that’s exactly what Klitschko wants to be able to land the left hook.

2nd Round
It was a sloppy round. They held and clinched a lot. Klitschko landed the best shot, which was another straight right hand. Rahman landed a short left hook, but didn’t have much on it.

3rd Round
Klitschko had Rahman up against the ropes and was measuring Rahman with his jab to set up his right hand. Slow and plodding, but dominating round by Klitschko. Rahman wasn’t throwing any punches.

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This is courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Yahoo! article about Brock Lesnar’s drawing power.

Just a reminder - this is for North American buys only, so the international buys that pace WWE aren’t included.

1. Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Dec. 6, 1,250,000

2. UFC: Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Nov. 15, 1,010,000

3. Wrestling: WrestleMania, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul “Big Show” Wight, March 30, 670,000

4. UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch/Lesnar vs. Heath Herring, Aug. 9, 625,000

5. UFC: Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Feb. 2, 600,000

6. UFC: Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5, 540,000

7. UFC: St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 19, 530,000

8. Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jan. 19, 500,000

9. UFC: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, Sept. 6, 480,000

10. UFC: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk/Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, May 24, 475,000

It was really a two dog race and you have to wonder if Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture could’ve beaten Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao if the previously rumored Spike multiple episode previews which would’ve been much like HBO’s 24/7 series, had happened.

Also, UFC’s December show will probably jump in there anywhere from number 6 on down and bump out the UFC show headlined by B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk. However, I think that Tito Ortiz definitely helped that buy rate.

UFC is the king of PPV. I imagine the next WWE show on that list is probably Royal Rumble or something, but it has to be fairly down that list.

Rather than do our usual aftermath, we did an audio show based on the big fight from last night.

Big D hosts the show while Stevie J from Angry Marks and I call in. D’s friend Panic calls in near the end.

We discuss the the fight, Oscar’s future, Manny’s future, where boxing goes from here, what the next biggest fight could be on the horizon, and how awful the undercard was.

Forgive the Panic and D conversation. They’re just goofballs. There is good boxing talk for most of the show.

You can listen by clicking here.

Here’s what some of the respected boxing writers I read had to say about the fight last night.

Mismatch indeed
Dan Rafael says that the fight was indeed a mismatch, but just not the way we originally thought.

What is Oscar’s true legacy?
SC looks at Oscar’s career and where it fell off. It’s a fantastic look, especially the last 9 years of Oscar’s boxing career and should be a must read.

There was no doubt about it.
Bill Dwyre says that Oscar should be at ringside from now on, not inside the ring.

Round by round
Lance Pugmire takes you round by round through the fight and gives you his thoughts after every round.

The Pacquiao era has begun.
Kevin Iole says that Manny Pacquiao is the new big draw in boxing.

Come back at 6PM Pacific and we’ll start blogging the undercard and then the main event.

We have a preview up with insight from writers like George Kimball, Bill Dwyre, and Tim Kawakami.

See you in a couple of hours.

Daniel Jacobs and Victor Lares is up first.

Jacobs made quick work of Lares. The ref stopped it after the first knockdown.

Juan Manuel Lopez is next against Sergio Medina.

Even quicker than the first fight. Medina sat up on the ropes, covered his face and just took punches. He went down three times and it was over. Pitiful performance by Medina.

Jim Lampley says that Oscar weighed in earlier today at 147 while Manny weighed in at 148 1/2. I figured De La Hoya would be at 155 by now.

With the early KOs, they have a lot of time to fill. It’s the Lampley and Merchant show right now.

Victor Ortiz and Jeff Resto are up now.

Ortiz knocked him down twice in the first round. Resto decided to fight right handed. I’m guessing he was having trouble seeing Ortiz’s straight left.

They showed Usher, James Caan, Reggie Miller, Tommie Hearns, Antonio Margarito, Iron Mike Tyson, and Sugar Shane Mosely in the crowd.

Keisha Cole is singing the National Anthem. Was Kelis busy?

Manny comes out to the ring with We Will Rock You as his entrance music. That must be his favorite karaoke song. I was hoping that Endless Love featuring he and his wife singing karaoke was going to be his entrance music.

Mike Buffer just told us to get ready to rumble. Or wait, he might’ve told Pacquiao and De La Hoya that.

You can hear the boos when Oscar was introduced. Manny’s fans are doing their job.

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao

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