The Contender season one and two cast member and boxer Jeff “Hell Raza” Fraza was killed early Saturday morning when he was hit by a commuter train in Haverhill, Mass. He was 34. His former girlfriend and mother of his son, Sylvia Pastrana, told the Boston Herald, “I was just told that he was walking …
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Mark Burnett has sold The Contender‘s format to Thailand, where it will air not as a boxing competition, but as a kickboxing competition. The spin-off will be called The Contender Muay Thai, and “will begin production later this year,” Variety reports. “The series will air on Channel 5 in Thailand; discussions also are ongoing with …
Jeff Wald, an executive producer of The Contender, and the man who came up with the initial concept, tells FightNightNews that “NBC fucked up” the show last season. Specifically, he says, the network aired the show against “some incredibly strong competition,” and “put it on three different days in three different time slots the first …
ESPN has bumped The Contender 2‘s debut to July from April, when it was originally scheduled to debut. This Sunday, however, the network will present a special event entitled “East Coast Pride,” a fight between Peter Manfredo, Jr., and Scott Pemberton. The fight will air live from Providence, Manfredo’s home base, at 9:30 p.m. ET. …
Back when we were young and innocent, Jeff Probst would hold up a bag of Doritos and offer them as a reward, and we’d laugh and think to ourselves, “Silly Jeff, you’re whoring Doritos.” That was then. Last year, there was a 30 percent increase in product placement and appearances on network prime-time TV, to …
Right about now, ESPN is glad it purchased The Contender 2. The rematch between season one’s finalists was “the highest-rated boxing match on ESPN since 1998, and the most viewed telecast on either ESPN or ESPN2 since 1997,” Mediaweek reports. About 1.2 million households tuned in, and the show had “a 2.2 rating among men …
Contender champion Sergio Mora beat Peter Manfredo Jr. yet again, winning an eight-round rematch by a split decision. As the LA Daily News reports, “Manfredo Jr. outlanded Mora 180-133, but Mora landed a higher percentage, 32 percent to 30 percent overall and 36 percent on power punches to Manfredo Jr.’s 34 percent.” ESPN runs down …