The Contender on the ropes
* By James Hooper
* From: The Sunday Telegraph
* December 19, 2009 11:50PM
THE credibility of television boxing show The Contender has been rocked by allegations of "dodgy" decisions and poor judging.
Billed as an opportunity to win $250,000 and a superfight against Anthony Mundine, the Fox 8 program has been put under the microscope after a string of suspicious decisions.
Ousted fighter Junior Talipeau remains furious about being robbed of victory against big-punching Russian Victor Oganov in the fourth fight of the series, a bout numerous boxing experts believe the Australian middleweight champion clearly won.
And The Sunday Telegraph has learned respected boxing trainer Johnny Lewis was so concerned about some of the results he approached NSW Boxing executive director Craig Waller.
Lewis is a paid member of the cast who acts as "mentor" for the 14 fighters. "I spoke to the boxing authority about it because I thought there was a couple of dicey decisions," Lewis said. "I felt with the sport being showcased in the way it was, the last thing the show needed was bad judging.
"I felt they should have used (more) experienced judges, but when I spoke to Craig Waller he turned around and said he thought they got it right. I'm not a judge, but if Junior didn't win that fight then I've never seen one. I'll stand by that until the day I die. There were a couple of fights where if you see the scorecards, some of them I felt were really wrong."
The Contender is produced by independent television company Granada for Fox 8, with all fights sanctioned and judged by the NSW Boxing Authority. Viewers are only shown a highlights package of each fight but they can watch all five rounds on the Fox 8 website.
As the series builds towards the final at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on January 11, ousted fighter Talipeau has lifted the lid on some of the decisions that have left beaten fighters fuming. "You know when you've lost and you know when you've won, and I definitely won my fight," Talipeau said. "It wasn't even close. I flogged him. These judges ... I just don't know.
"Maybe we need to start getting some younger judges because these guys are too old, or maybe it's corruption in the sport. It's like they'd made the decision before I even fought (Oganov)."
The explosive claims were met with a firm rebuke from The Contender's executive producer, Lara Hopkins, who said any talk of judges deciding the outcome of fights before the bouts was "ridiculous". "Not as far as we're concerned. I have absolutely no idea about that," Hopkins said.
But Gold Coast-based boxing promoter Jamie Myer agreed with the judging assessment of world champion trainer Lewis, labelling some of the decisions "dodgy".
"From what I've seen, some of the decisions look pretty dodgy. If I was Junior Talipeau I'd be filthy," Myer said. "I've watched all of the fights in full on the internet and there's a few fighters entitled to feel pretty hard done by."
Another ousted boxer, Les Piper, was also bemused by the scorecards in the Talipeau fight.
"During Junior's fight you could hear Victor's cornerman saying Junior was three rounds up on him," Piper said. "Paul Briggs even had a word to the judge about it. But what can you do? They say it's reality TV, but that's bulls...t."
