Filipino ‘Contender’ version coming soon

Former two-time world boxing champion Gerry Peñalosa is set to launch a local version of the US reality TV series “The Contender” and the target is to start the four-month competition in April on ESPN5.

“The Contender” ran for four seasons in the US from 2005 to 2009 with Sugar Ray Leonard and Sylvester Stallone the presentors in the first year. Leonard was the sole host for two more seasons before actor Tony Danza took over. Last year, “The Contender” staged a comeback with Andre Ward as host and Freddie Roach and Naazim Richardson as trainers. Ward, 34, won the gold medal in lightheavyweight boxing for the US at the 2004 Olympics and went on to capture world titles in the supermiddleweight and lightheavyweight divisions as a pro before retiring with a 32-0 record, including 16 KOs, in 2017. Richardson is known for training Bernard Hopkins and Sugar Shane Mosley.

Peñalosa said his concept is to assemble a cast of promising pros in the flyweight, bantamweight and featherweight divisions with no more than 10 fights in their resumes from all over the country. Starting in March, Peñalosa will hold “tryouts” via two-round sparring sessions for prospects in Cebu, Davao and Manila. He’ll personally pick the fighters for the series. 

The fights will be held once a month and shown on ESPN5. “They will be six-rounders,” said Peñalosa. “We’ll go through three elimination rounds from April to June then in July, we’ll hold the finals, each for eight rounds. Since we’ll only have a 30-day rest period in between fights, we’ve requested permission from GAB chairman (Abraham) Mitra to exempt us from the mandatory 45-day rest period for boxers. For the finals, we plan to headline the card with a big main event, maybe a world title fight.”

“The Contender” had versions in Asia in 2008 and Australia in 2009 but neither went beyond the first season. Peñalosa said the Philippine edition has its own format and he hopes to discover future world champions in the process. In the US, two of the five “The Contender” winners went on to become world titlists, Sergio Mora and Sakio Bika.

The working title for Peñalosa’s series is “Dugong Kampeon” but nothing is final on what it will be called. What’s certain is Peñalosa has forged a long-term relationship with ESPN5 to produce not only a version of “The Contender” but also a lineup of boxing cards during the year. The next GerryPens show is penciled at the Midas Hotel on Feb. 16 with Dave Peñalosa taking on a Mexican, former two-time world champion JohnRiel Casimero facing a Japanese in a much-awaited comeback and up-and-coming Carl Martin battling a Thai. Down the road, Peñalosa plans to bring back Nicaragua’s hard-hitting IBF lightflyweight champion Felix Alvarado for a title defense against a Filipino challenger. Last October, Alvarado claimed the vacant IBF throne via a seventh round disposal of Randy Petalcorin at the Midas Hotel.

Peñalosa said giving a break to his nephew Dave, Casimero and Martin is something all promoters want to do in opening doors for boxers to get ahead in their careers. “I think Dave is serious about boxing and has the talent to make it so my brother Dodie Boy told me why not give him a break,” he said. “Casimero can still be a world champion if he sets his mind to it. Casimero has contracts with five different managers and we all want only the best for him. Sampson Lewkowicz has released him but I had to talk to the others to get him a fight. As for Martin, I didn’t realize I gave him some boxing equipment last October so it was easy to book him. He could be the next Manny Pacquiao.”