(Photo:  Yahoo's "The Contender" Page)

This is the first episode of not only the quarterfinals, but of the night (two episodes viewed Sunday).  Check back later for the next episode.

We start the show with a pretty tense situation.  Juan De La Rosa received some cuts and injuries in his first round fight against Tarrick Salmaci, and quit.  Now the remaining fighters has to vote one of the previous losers back in the competition.  The guys wrote down their vote, and Ahmed Kaddour won.  "Hollywood" was back in the competition.

Later we find out why he was let back in.  Some of the guys had grown tired of Ishe's antics and attitude.  He was rude to everyone and he seemed as if he didn't like anyone.  So four of the remaining seven colluded prior to the vote and agreed to bring Ahmed back in order to frustrate Ishe.

The tension between Ishe and the other boxers came to a head in the kitchen.  Jesse and Peter were sitting around when Ishe came into the kitchen.  Ishe got a bit paranoid, and stepped up to them.  Jesse questioned Ishe about trashing everyone's fight record. Tempers flared between Ishe and Jesse until the rest of the guys finally pulled Jesse out of the room.  Sergio felt the guys were ganging up on Ishe because they didn't want to fight him.  That's possible, since everyone felt that after the Ahmed fight Ishe was the biggest threat.

The next day, Ahmed returned, cocky as ever.  The funniest thing was he wore a t-shirt saying "Champion of Contender".  Hilarious, especially considering he lost his first fight.  Afterwards Sugar Ray laid out the plan for the rest of the series.  There are no more teams.  Every challenge would be individual ones, and whoever won the challenge was to be the matchmaker:  either they could choose someone to fight, or they could match two guys up to fight.  Very intriguing choice.

The challenge was a medicine ball obstacle course.  There were three legs of the course:  Leg one had the boxers holding two medicine balls with boxing gloves while walking a balance beam.  Leg two had the boxers jumping from tree stump to three stump with three medicine balls.  Leg three placed them into a maze while holding four medicine balls, and then had to shoot two of them into a metal hoop.  The finale was to take one of the remaining balls and throw it at a bust of a boxer's head to win the competition.

After each leg, there were boxers eliminated.  Anthony, Alfonso, Peter, and Ahmed were eliminated after Leg One.  Sergio and Ishe were eliminated in Leg Two.  In the final leg, Jesse finally beat Joey to win the first challenge of the second round.

After they got back to the gym, Stallone called Jesse up for his decision.  Jesse first asked Ishe to come in the ring.  He apologized to Ishe for acting rash and angry the other night.  He then said he would give Ishe someone to fight, and he chose Sergio.  In my opinion, it was a defining moment.  Jesse has been known for constantly criticizing boxers throughout the show - Ishe, Anthony, Juan - over not stepping up when being challenged, whether from a rival or by injury.  The fact that Jesse was claiming he wasn't ready to fight, and backed off from the spat with Ishe the night before is telling.  When it comes down to it, strategy was as important as the macho bravado, if not more.

So the first fight of the quarterfinals was Ishe Smith vs. Sergio Mora.  There's no need to go into their backgrounds, since we've done that in the first round.  Both of them were surrounded by family, getting them prepared for the fight.  In an exclusive scene on Yahoo's "The Contender" page, there were some more fireworks between Jesse and Sergio over what Sergio felt was Jesse ducking Ishe.  Ishe and Sergio had some words for each other as well, although it was more of a competitive spirit than true animosity.  Soon it was fight time.

The first round started as a feeling out process.  Ishe came into the fight saying he didn't respect Sergio's punching power.  Ishe didn't do much defending either, and looked to load up on a few punches.  Sergio got some good combinations which finally got Ishe on defense.  A close round for Sergio.

The second round was weird.  I say that because I couldn't tell whether Sergio got stung by one of Ishe's punches, or it was a legitimate rope-a-dope strategy.  In a five-round fight, that doesn't make much sense.  Anyway, Sergio started off the round with some decent hooks, but Ishe turned it around and had Sergio pinned in the corner.  Ishe nailed him with some great shots to the body and rocked Sergio a couple of times.  However, after every flurry, Sergio would taunt Ishe, telling him to bring more.  Hmm.  Round clearly went to Ishe, though.

Both fighters came out cautious in the third round before Sergio struck first.  However, they had no effect on Ishe, and it was apparent that Sergio could not go toe-to-toe in this fight.  Ishe hit Sergio with some great power shots that hurt him.  Sergio once again was getting trapped in the corner, and the crowd grimmaced everytime Ishe would unload on him.  That was probably one of the most lopsided rounds we've seen in this series.  Ishe by a mile.  At the end of the round, Ishe was forced off of Sergio by the ref, and ended up falling to the canvas.  I say both were inadvertent.  Ishe was trying to end the fight and the ref was aggressive in getting Ishe off of Sergio.  No harm no foul though.

In Round four, both fighters stalled.  What part of the game is this?  It seemed as if both were hesitant to do anything.  Finally they get it on, and Sergio shows his speed, getting off some decent combinations, but nothing to make me feel he outright won the round.  I gave it a draw, leaning Sergio's way.

Round five once again is the deciding factor.  So many fights in this show has come down to the fifth round so many times it's seems scripted.  Oh well.  This time Sergio went straight after him, once again showing his speed and agility.  This time it was Ishe that was placed on the ropes.  But the real difference in this round was Sergio's defensive skills, which frustrated Ishe to no end.  Ishe couldn't touch him in that round, as Sergio was bobbing and weaving while hitting Ishe with some nice, crisp jabs.  Sergio never really hurt Ishe, but Ishe didn't have the talent to hang in there with a technically sound guy like Sergio.  At least not five rounds, anyway.

Sergio won the fight by a split decision.  I say it should have been a draw, but I can deal with that assessment.  Besides, it's hard to accurately judge an edited fight.  They should at least consider placing the fights unedited online.

Ishe was definitely down after the fight, and after 17 years of boxing Ishe questioned whether he would continue his boxing career.  He felt he let his wife and kids down, and was tired of training so hard just to be let down.  He hung up his gloves and left.

The next episode was only minutes away.

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