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Tuesday night's episode of
The Contender
featured a doubleheader that would wrap up the
quarterfinal round and set up the final four for
next week. With Steve Forbes and Cornelius
Bundrage already sitting in the semi final
round, the final two spots were up for grabs. In
the first part of the doubleheader, veteran
Grady Brewer took on Mike Stewart. Brewer
advanced to this position by defeating Vinroy
Barrett in the first round. Stewart got to this
point by the most dramatic of fashion, by
knocking out Ebo Elder while behind on the
scorecards.
Unfortunately for Stewart he got himself
in the same position he was in against
Elder, only this time he couldn't find that big
punch to knock Stewart out. Brewer came out
dominating, outworking Stewart, and utilizing
his speed. Brewer was able to get inside and get
off before Stewart could do anything. Despite
Contender trainer Jeremy Williams pleas to
Stewart to get busy, Stewart just could not dig
down, and Brewer never changed anything up.
Brewer consistently beat Stewart to the punch,
landed the bigger shots, and was much faster
then Stewart on his way to winning every round
decisively. Brewer looked impressive again and
is now one fight from fighting for 500,000$
dollars. Brewer will fight Norberto Bravo in the
semi-finals.
The Gary Balletto - Norberto Bravo
semi-final match was one of the more anticipated
fights of the quarterfinal round. A brawl was
expected and that's just what occurred.
Balletto had a good opening round. He was able
to keep Bravo off of him and land some big
shots. But, Balletto's wide and wild shots would
get him in trouble later in the fight. Bravo got
back to his game plan in round two, as he
smothered Balletto getting inside and doing
great work. Bravo was able to push the fight to
a toe to toe setting, which is just what he
wanted, and he was able to find a consistent
home for his inside uppercut. Round three was
very close and could have gone either way,
though two of the judges ended up giving the
round to Bravo. Balletto landed the bigger
shots, mainly because that's all he was
throwing, but Bravo was doing the better work.
Rounds four and five were all Bravo.
Bravo got inside and started punishing Balletto
with uppercuts and everything else in his
arsenal. Balletto left himself open and off
balance on numerous occasions while trying to
land a haymaker, and Bravo took advantage of it.
Balletto seemed to be trying to change the fight
with one shot, as he consistently only threw one
shot at a time. The one shot that he would throw
was usually a haymaker that left himself off
balance, and Bravo made sure that he paid for
his mistake. A desperate Balletto looked like a
tough man fighter in the last two rounds as his
huge shots missed wildly left and right. As the
fight went to the cards, Bravo won by scores of
49-46-49-46,and 48-47. The veteran Bravo who has
already won a brand new truck, is now one fight
away from the championship.
Next week's episode will also be a
doubleheader, showing both semi-final match-ups
with the finale in Los Angeles less then two
weeks away. The semi-finals will go as such with
the winners fighting for the Contender title and
a half million dollars at the Staples Center on
September 26th.
Steve Forbes vs Cornelius Bundrage
Grady Brewer vs Norberto Bravo
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