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In the last episode (which ended a couple of minutes prior), we saw Sergio Mora defeat Ishe Smith in a very close fight that pitted power and braun against speed and technical ability.  The boxer won.  The guys loved it, as they were glad Ishe was gone.  As soon as Sergio returned to the training house they all congratulated him and gave him a toast for getting rid of Ishe.

The next day, they got back to their training, and a number of them were noticing Alfonso.  Alfonso really impressed a number of people when he defeated Peter in the first episode, and the fact that Peter had returned to win another fight made Alfonso's reputation even stronger in the eyes of the boxers.  Well, all except Ahmed.  He thought Alfonso was out of shape.  What's ironic is that Alfonso ran his sparring partner out of the ring with some heavy blows at the time Ahmed was talking smack.

Later on, the boxers got together along with Stallone and Sugar Ray to present Sergio a new pendant; a gold one that had the Roman number four (IV) engraved in it.  Sergio also got a reward, in which he could take anyone else with him.  Sergio picked Alfonso to accompany him, and they went with Sugar Ray and Stallone to a country club to golf.  As both Alfonso and Sergio are both Mexicans, Sergio joked that they're used to cutting the grass on the golf course.  Both were pretty much out of their element, but it seemed as if they had a fun time.

Later, Joey started talking about how dangerous Ahmed was.  Ahmed may have lost the fight with Ishe, but that didn't take away any respect the guys had for him.  Personally I felt it was stupid to bring Ahmed back just for Ishe's sake.  Once again, they brought back a guy that has a pretty good shot of defeating someone down the line.  Ishe's gone, and there really wasn't any fireworks between those two, so now they're stuck with a guy that could do some damage.

Joey realized that, and started getting Ahmed to trust him.  He felt the best way to neutralize Ahmed's emotions was to get Ahmed to confide in him and thus take his guard down.  It worked, as Ahmed felt Joey was trying to help him out.  As we saw in the last episode, it's every fighter for himself.  Ahmed doesn't know that yet.

It was challenge time, and this time it was the cart races.  One member of each boxer's family would sit in one of the chinese-style carts.  The boxer would have to pull the cart around a horsetrack.  The first race would eliminate the last three boxers, and the winner of the second race won the challenge and would also win a Toyota Tacoma pickup.

This was probably the most important challenge of the show to date, if only because of the results.  First, Anthony pulled his hamstring and could barely walk after the race.  The second thing stunned everyone.  Joey was well ahead to win the challenge, but when he got to the finish line, he stopped and dropped the cart.  Peter raced ahead for the victory.  Joey said he did it because Peter deserved the truck more than he did since he had a wife and kids.

However, Sergio smelled a rat.  Sergio remembered Joey discussing a book he had read called The 48 Rules of Power, which showed people how to get an upper hand in almost any situation possible.  Well, Sergio had read that book too, and knew Joey was using some of the tips from it to his advantage.  Sergio told Jeremy, the head trainer, about it, and that's when Jeremy stirred the pot.  While Peter was in the showers, Jeremy said, "He gave you a $40,000 truck so he could win a million."  It was a very compelling argument, and Sergio sat in front of the cameras and explained everything Joey was doing came from that book.  Probably one of the best segments of the season.  Or at least it was for me, because I love the detective work.

Jeremy told Peter he should fight now while he got the chance.  Peter kept it in mind, but didn't think Joey was that conniving in order to do something like that.  When it came time to make the fight, Peter decided not to choose Joey to fight, since he gave him the truck (and Sergio had a field day talking about that one), nor did he let Anthony fight since he was injured.  Instead, he played matchmaker and chose Ahmed and Alfonso.

Ahmed Khaddour vs. Alfonso Gomez.  It was a good fight on paper, and Ahmed was believed to give Alfonso problems coming into this fight.  Ahmed had good hands, and some good power that possibly could neutralize Alfonso's busy hands and aggressiveness.

In the first round, they exchanged punches, both getting a feel of what the other will throw.  Finally, Alfonso broke up that monotomy with a flurry of straight jabs that got Ahmed covering up.  Ahmed never answered at the end of the round.  Alfonso won it easily.

In the second round, Ahmed tried to come out throwing hooks, but Alfonso was able to weather that storm.  Then he delivered his own, as he pummelled Ahmed with those jabs.  Ahmed's defense was poor;  he couldn't stop the barrage of jabs coming right for him and didn't know how to properly defend against them.  Alfonso showed he had some strength following those punches, and Ahmed once again had no answer.  Another easy round for Alfonso.

In Round three, Ahmed once again came out swinging.  He mixed it up a bit, connecting with hooks and uppercuts.  One good punch actually sent Alfonso's mouthpiece flying.  That shows Ahmed does have good strength.  However, that only made Alfonso mad, and he finished the round in a flurry, tagging Ahmed at will.  The round was a lot closer than the other two, but Alfonso still won it.  That means Ahmed will have to knock him out, and I don't think that's going to happen.

The fourth round saw Ahmed try a different tactic.  He didn't simply charge in and start banging, he stayed to the outside and tried to use his reach.  It seemed as if the fight came to a standstill, because Alfonso never fought anyone that used their reach (a weakness, maybe?).  Ahmed actually looked like he was getting the better shots off, but it was still too close to call.  I'd be tempted to call that a 10-10 round, leaning Ahmed's way.

The fifth round was dramatic.  Ahmed had finally turned the tide of the fight his way, and was rocking Alfonso with some HUGE shots.  At one point Alfonso looked as if he was going to go down.  Had that been an experienced fighter, he would have realized that and not given him any space whatsoever.  Alfonso was clearly hurt, and started to tie Ahmed up.  Once the ref broke them up, Alfonso raised his hand, possibly as a sign that he was alright.  Ahmed did the exact same thing and was met by a straight right hand.  It was poetic justice for two reasons:  (1.) Ahmed showboats too much when he should be serious about knocking this guy out and (2.) Ahmed had been eating that jab all night long.  Alfonso finished with a good combo to end the round, but I don't think it was enough to steal it.

Alfonso won by unaminous decision.  Ahmed suffers another defeat.  Looking at the fight twice, Ahmed would have probably knocked Alfonso out within another two rounds.  Alfonso definitely benefits from the short 5-round fights.  I don't think that will help him down the road.  Whoever fights Alfonso in the semis can learn a lot by watching this fight.  Ahmed, however, takes that journey home again with that barbie doll fiancee of his, and wishes Alfonso well.  He says he'll be back.  Let's hope he's a lot smarter than how he fought on this show.

Next week we have fight 3 of the Quarterfinals.  See ya then.

My Other Contender Posts:

1.  The Contender Quarterfinals:  Ishe vs. Sergio
2.  The Contender, Episode Eight:  Jimmy vs. Joey
3.  The Contender Episode Seven:  Juan vs. Tarick
4.  The Contender Episode Six:  Anthony vs. Brent
5.  The Contender Episode Three:  Ishe vs. Ahmed