(Photo:  Yahoo's The Contender Page)

Alfonso Manfredo won last week's fight over an overmatched Ahmed Khaddour.  Alfonso was much more bruised this time than he was in his first fight with Peter, but won by a unaminous decision.  Back at the training house the boys talked about how dangerous Alfonso was, but they gave him kudos for being all heart.

There were four boxers left to go in the quarterfinals, and they once again tried to pre-pick fights, which has failed, what, three times already?  At the heart of the matter was Anthony, who had a torn hamstring (most thought it was just pulled, but a doctor announced it being torn later on).  They decided Joey would face Peter this week and Jesse would face Anthony next week.  However, none of them trusted Anthony to keep his word to fight Jesse if he won the mission this week due to the Brent Cooper incident a few episodes back.

They didn't realize Joey was scheming as well.  Anthony was injured, and would be a much better matchup for him than the other three fighters.  The object of the game is to win, and the best way to win is to choose your opponents carefully when given the chance.  However, Joey screwed up by telling Jesse his plan.  Jesse felt Joey was trying to get an easy fight.  However, wasn't Jesse more than willing to get that same injured fighter?  Jesse realized that Joey couldn't win the mission this week, or Joey would choose Anthony to fight this week.

Later, Stallone gave Alfonso the IV pendant, which is given to each semifinalist.  Jackie, who is a long-time boxing publicist and manager, allowed Alfonso to take someone with him for the reward.  Since Sergio took Alfonso with him last week for his reward, Alfonso would pay back the favor.  They accompanied Jackie on a clothes shopping spree on Rodeo Drive.  Blah.  Seems to me they're starting to run out of rewards choices, as they've already done one before.  I felt it was a waste of money anyways.  Had it be me, I'd have probably asked her could the money we were going to spend home.  I could have paid bills with it.

It was challenge time, this week they had a speedbag race...sorta.  The guys had to lay on the ground facing away from the speedbags which were probably, say, 100 yards away.  In front of each speedbag was a sign with a specific color and number.  Sugar Ray would either tell them a number or a color, and they had to get up and run to it and grab the speedbag.

There were only five guys that were in this challenge, since Anthony was injured and forfeited.  The first part of the competition had the five guys simply trying to run and grab a speedbag.  There were four speedbags, so the odd man out had to challenge another guy in a speedbag race.  The loser of that race was eliminated.

Sergio lost the first race and challenged Alfonso, who was eliminated first.  Sergio lost the group race again, and challenged Peter.  Peter misunderstood Sugar Ray's command, which gave Sergio the easy victory.  Sergio lost the group race AGAIN, challenged Joey, but was eliminated.  That meant Joey and Jesse remained, and they went two out of three.  Jesse won the first race, Joey won the second, but Jesse pulled out the third to win the mission and became the matchmaker.

When they got back to the gym, Jesse decided the fight.  He said he would have fought next, but he had a hamstring pull.  Thus, he picked Joey and Peter to fight.

So it was Peter Manfredo Jr. vs. Joey Gilbert.  Once again experience was a factor, as Peter had lost only one in 23 fights (Alfonso was his first loss).  Joey had only fought nine fights.  The one thing Joey had going for him was his strength and heart.  Joey understood what he was getting into, as Peter would no doubt be the toughest fight he has had up to date.  He also rationalized that Jesse's choice might be a blessing in disguise, as fighting Peter would make him tougher.  Peter simply saw this as another fight, and the win a few weeks back over Miguel allowed him to regain his confidence.

In the first round, Peter simply had the sharper punches and was able to make things happen by using his jab and unloading some good counterpunches.  Joey came in very flustered.  His punches were very wide, he wasn't guarding very well, and he left himself open to some strong shots by Peter.  Joey's probably the best athlete in the competition, and he has a long reach, so he should have tried to use the jab to pin Peter on the ropes.  The crowd grimmaced with almost every shot Peter threw, and he hurt Joey with a few of them.  Peter won the round easily.

Before the second round, Joey told his corner Peter broke one of his ribs.  Ouch.  I'm not sure, but once he stood up you could see a part of his rib cage poking out.  I don't know if that was the one that was broke or if that was just cartilage, because Joey's a pretty slim guy.  However, you could tell it was bothering him, as Peter pretty much did anything he wanted in there.  Joey really didn't put up any resistance on defense nor did he do any kind of damage on offense.  He was never in danger of being knocked out, but it was a lopsided round. 
Now here's the problem with edited rounds:  Tommy said he felt Joey won Round two, but there was nothing in the edited footage that would have pointed to that.  As long as Tommy's been in the boxing business I'm sure he knows what he's talking about.  At the very least, it was probably closer than the footage suggests.

In round three, Peter comes out with some pretty good shots.  He looks a little more careful now.  And then something went off in Joey's head.  He caught Peter with a good shot right on the ear, and then he goes after him.  Finally he's using his athletic abilities to rough Peter up and comes back with punch after punch, hurting Peter with every shot.  It should be noted that Peter did a fairly decent job of guarding under the circumstances, but Joey definitely won round three.

Round four saw much of the same.  Peter simply couldn't go toe-to-toe with Joey.  Peter should also be criticized with worrying too much about head shots, which is normal in boxing, and not going to the body.  He might have been surprised if he got him with some really good hooks to the body.  But Joey continues to lunge at Peter, and although Peter displays some knowledge of defense, there's only so much you can do when facing shots like that.  Joey wins that round.

Round five started exactly like you thought it would: both guys coming out and throwing everything they had at each other.  Peter is an excellent counterpuncher.  He knows when his opponent is vulnerable from the missed shot and he takes advantage.  He hit Joey with some great shots, reminiscent of the first round.  But Joey wisely uses his strength advantage to pin Peter against the ropes and tries to unload on him.  You would have thought his corner would have told him to move around more and stop getting caught on the ropes against a stronger opponent.

And that's when it happened; an accidental headbutt gives Joey a huge cut over his eye.  Many thought it was a punch, but that was WAY too deep to be from one or even a coupleof punches.  The blood flowed quickly, and soon the ref called the cutman over to check it out.  There was no way the fight could continue, so under California rules if the fight is stopped by a cut it goes to the scorecards.

In a split decision, Peter won.  I kind of question that, as I thought it should have been a draw, and if you place Tommy's view into it, Joey won the fight.  But I wasn't angered by the decision for a couple of reasons:  1.)  Joey fought weak in the first and second round.  2,)  There was no way Joey was going to fight again anyway.  He had a busted rib and a deep cut over his eye.  There had already been too many replacements on the show at that point anyway.

For all of the talk about Joey being a manipulator and an opportunist, the fact remains that he had the two best fights on the show; both showing how much heart he has.  In this fight, he had a broken rib.  In his earlier fight, he had an injured leg, and he had opponents both times that were more experienced than him.  Kudos to Stallone and the gang, because they really had an asset in Joey Gilbert.

Afterwards, Joey could hardly see, and he was in a lot of pain from the beating he took by Peter.  They called the EMT's to take him to the nearest hospital.  They were going to place him on a gurney, but he wanted to walk out on his own, which he did with his dad.

Next week is Anthony vs. Jesse.  Anthony has the only knockout of the show, and both are injured.  Will we see another short fight?  Possibly.  See ya next week.