Two months and 14 fights later the Contender Finale is now set and it will be one of the pre-favorites Steve Forbes taking on journeyman veteran Grady Brewer for half million dollars. Forbes survived an ugly fight to win a decision over Cornelius "K-9" Bundrage, while Grady Brewer survived a first round knockdown to defeat Norberto Bravo by majority decision. The semi-finals, which were shown in back-to-back doubleheader format, were a total contrast of each other. One fight a rough and ugly fight, the other an all out war.

    The first semi-final pitted Forbes against Bundrage. Forbes had defeated Freddy Curiel and Nick Acevedo to get to this point, while Bundrage beat Michael Clark and Walter Wright to get to this point. The biggest factor going into this match was the size advantage. Remember that K-9 had been fighting recently at 154 pounds, while Forbes was a titlist at 130, and only recently had begun fighting at 140. Bundrage would try to use his size advantage throughout the fight as he consistently was holding and leaning on Forbes.

    Round One set the stage for the fight as Bundrage got close and consistently tied up Forbes and while tied up banged away at the back of the head of Forbes. This seemed to be K-9's best offense in the fight,  holding, grabbing, and hitting behind the head. Amazingly, Bundrage never lost a point for his tactics, only garnering a mere warning from referee Pat Russell. Nonetheless, K-9's tactics were probably enough to win him the first round. Forbes came back strong in round 2, as he was able to take the round with numerous flurries. Round Three was very close, with a lot of foul and rough play. K-9 landed some shots inside, but he was mainly able to slow Forbes  down in a very close round.

    Rounds 4 and 5 were all Forbes as he was able to avoid Bundrage's grabbing and peck away at K-9 through his numerous flurries. The fight went to the cards and Forbes won by scores of 49-46,49-46,and 48-47. Amazingly, Bundrage looked very surprised that he had lost. Steve Forbes' flurries will now send him into the Contender championship fight, and he is now one win away from 500,000$ dollars.

    The second semi-final would be the total opposite of the first as Norberto Bravo and Grady Brewer waged a five round war. Bravo got to this point by defeating Rudy Cisneros and Gary Balletto, while Brewer got here by beating Vinroy Barrett and Mike Stewart. Bravo had a huge opening round as he came out the aggressor and dropped Brewer hard with a vicious left hook late in the round. Brewer beat the count, but looked very wobbly, luckily it near the end of the round.

    Brewer got his bearings back in round 2 as he started to find a home for what would be his meal ticket punch, his right uppercut. Brewer consistently found a home for the uppercut as Bravo was coming inside. Round Three really turned into a toe to toe slugfest, as both fighters were just winging non stop punches. Brewer appeared to get the better, as his uppercut continued to land. Round Four was a better round for Bravo, who was able to land some good straight rights, still a very close round. The final round was mostly all Brewer as he got the better of Bravo during some vicious exchanges. As the fight went to the cards, Brewer won by a majority decision by scores of 47-47,49-46,and 48-46. Brewer, who has fought nearly everyone in his journeyman career, now has a shot at the Contender title and 500,000 dollars.

    The finale of the Contender season 2 will be Tuesday September 26, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. We now know that it will be Steve Forbes vs Grady Brewer, Two fighters that have paid their dues, and will be fighting for the biggest purse of their careers.