Does Anybody Watch The Contender?

[ROH522155]

i watched the contender season 2 and 3 and i loved that show! i couldnt wait for the fourth season to start but today i found out that espn canceled it, it went to versus, and is now called the contender asia!!! and its not boxing its punching kicking head butting and all that stuff. IM SO MAD!!

[theFRANCHISE]

It's Muay Thai a/k/a kickboxing.

It's a different style than regular boxing, but that doesn't mean the competition level will be any worse.

I never really followed The Contender much anyway, but I think the format for the show was changed in response to the growing popularity of mixed martial-arts, which kickboxing is a major part of.

Boxing is losing a little steam compared to other combative sports, because there's not many household names in the world of boxing right now. Floyd Mayweather Jr. retired a few months back, Oscar de la Hoya is at the end of his career, Lennox Lewis retired, Bernard Hopkins is getting older, and I'm surprised that Evander Holyfield is still around.

To be honest, boxing's popularity hit its peak during the '90s when "Iron" Mike Tyson was dubbed "the baddest man on the planet," and promotion hasn't been the same since then.

[Bulldog]

Boxing is nothing but a niche sport anymore.And that's not due to the lack of quality, there's tons of quality especially in the lower divisions.The problem is that promoters don't take any chances anymore fearing that their protege might loose his unblemished record, and more importantly HBO promoting fighters instead of fights and still acting like it's the golden days of boxing where you don't have to do much to promote a fight.Look at UFC on the other side with a great promotion and a clear cut system doing unbelievable numbers of viewers.