(Photo: Yahoo's The Contender Page)

Due to travelling this weekend, I didn't get home in time to watch The Contender last night.  Therefore, I will only sum up what went down prior to the fight and my analysis of the fight itself, which an extended version of is online at their Yahoo website.

Last week, we saw a great fight end in a surprising ref stoppage.  Anthony Bosante was winning the fight handily, but two big uppercuts from Jesse Brinkley floored him.  He made it to his feet, but it was obvious that he never recovered and couldn't defend himself.

There were only four fighters left:  Jesse, Alfonso, Sergio, and Peter.  After having a cookout on a California beach with their families, the boxers were informed by Stallone that the semifinal fights would be seven rounds instead of five, and the boxers would decide for themselves who was fighting who, and when.  After talking it over, Peter vs. Alfonso would be first, and the next round would be Sergio vs. Jesse.

If you don't remember, Peter and Alfonso faced off in the first Contender fight, with Alfonso pulling it out in the last rounds for a victory.  However, Peter returned after Jeff Fraza was disqualified due to having chicken pox.  Peter defeated Miguel Espino and Joey Gilbert to get to the semifinals, so he had recovered from his only loss to get back to this spot.  Now the bout has been extended, which should work for Peter's favor, since he is more experienced and probably the better athlete of the two.  It will be interesting to see how all four fighters change their styles in order to keep pace.

The first round started out at a pretty fast pace.  As Stallone noted, they didn't seem to change their plans at all and worked at a five round pace.  That six extra minutes can be a difference maker.  Both guys threw good punches, but Peter got some of the better shots and was able to get some good counters.  Alfonso kept busy and hit Peter with a couple of shots.  I give it a 10-10 round, with the edge going to Peter.

For some reason, Jeremy, trainer extrodinaire that his is, told Alfonso to get busier.  Well we know what his advice did last week.  In this round, it was Alfonso landing the cleaner shots, but neither had been hurt yet.  The ref ruled Peter taking a knee a slip, but I couldn't tell from the camera angle if it really was.  The fathers of both guys, who were former boxers as well, are barking more orders than the trainers are.  Alfonso's mother is getting into it as well.  Alfonso barely wins this round.

We finally saw a clear cut round in the third.  Peter hit Alfonso with some jarring shots, and Alfonso didn't do a good job of covering up as his hands were too far apart and was leaving him open to uppercuts.  Although he never had Alfonso in trouble, Peter landed some mean punches that rocked Alfonso's dome.  Peter won that round for sure.

Alfonso wasn't done yet.  In the fourth, they made some decent exchanges, and Alfonso hits him with this uppercut that Peter never really saw coming.  He was hurt a bit, as Alfonso threw in some good shots and loaded up on the combinations to finish the round.  Round goes to Alfonso.

Alfonso carried that energy into Round 5, and it paid dividends.  Peter looked a bit off in this round, as he was missing some good shots to the body, yet Alfonso was on contact.  He was working those same combinations that were giving Peter fits in the first fight.  Alfonso pretty much won Round 5 in the same fashion he did in the first fight.  I don't know what it is with Peter.  Alfonso won this round.

There's just one little problem:  this fight goes seven rounds instead of five.  And after a decent exchange that Alfonso saw the better of, Peter hit him with a beautiful uppercut that looked like Alfonso's head would twist like Polterguiest.  Peter unloaded on him, throwing some good combinations and forcing Alfonso to cover up at the end.  This is probably the first time that we've seen Alfonso truly hurt in this competition.  Peter by a mile.

The final round was simply a toe-to-toe exchange with Peter consistently getting the better of it.  Alfonso was on his last legs, his face had swollen up, and he looked really tired.  Alfonso worked hard though, and never stopped throwing punches.  However, he got tagged at will by that reaching jab of Peter's which connected right in the middle of the face.  What happened in the first fight didn't happen for Peter in the second one.

Peter won, which is the right decision.  All I can say is that Peter should be thanking his lucky stars that it was a seven round fight instead of the original five round fight we've been seeing.  Alfonso had enough gas for five rounds.  On that sixth round, he became unglued by some wicked hands and the pace they were going.

Next week it's Jesse vs. Sergio, with the winner to face Peter at Caesar's Palace for the million dollars.  See ya next week.