Boxing Coverage updated 24/7 at MaxBoxing.com

A Former Titlist Tries to Win ‘The Contender’ Championship
By Steve Kim (Sep 25, 2006)

Send this page to friend

Give us your feedback

For Steve Forbes, who faces Grady Brewer Tuesday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in 'The Contender' finale for a cool half-million dollars, the moment he knew that being on the second season of the ESPN reality series gave him much more notoriety than he ever got for being the IBF jr. lightweight champion a few years ago came early.

"I had just moved to Detroit right around the time the show was airing and the neighborhood kids were like, 'You're on that show' and then I was at the grocery store and a five-year old girl came up to me and said, 'You're 2-Pound!!!' and right then I was like, 'Oh, wow,'" recalled Forbes.

The inclusion of Forbes in the second season raised a few eyebrows. Because unlike the other 31 fighters that have participated on this series, Forbes was not an unknown prospect or journeyman that had never really accomplished much in the sport. Forbes actually won the vacant IBF jr. lightweight title in 2000 against John Brown and made a few defenses before losing the title to Carlos Hernandez in 2003. While he wasn't a marquee name in the sport, he was certainly an accomplished pro - one that you wouldn't expect to see on this show.

“I was referred by somebody," explains Forbes when asked how he got involved in the show. "I looked at how people that aren't even into boxing responded to the guys in the first season. I would have a conversation with people and I would have to tell them I boxed. And once I did, they would say, 'Did you know Jesse Brinkley?' These are people that don't even watch boxing. And I felt like, 'OK, I'm a former world champion and these people don't even know who I am, at all. Yet they know Sergio Mora, Alfonso Gomez. OK, this is not such a bad thing.' You bring in people who are not normally boxing fans and they become fans."

Despite his lofty credentials, because he was a natural 130-pounder in a lot full of welterweights, Forbes says that initially his fellow competitors did not fear him.

“It was more like, 'Oh, this guy used to fight at 130, we'd love to beat him'. That's kinda the reaction until the guys really saw when we'd train together and stuff. They'd be like. 'This guy is not weak at this weight.' So I think it was more like, 'This guy’s a world class fighter but let’s see who could be the first to beat him. That was the initial reaction until it was, 'Nah, let's not face this guy right now.'"

And during the show, while the boxers were broken up into two separate squads, Forbes was the one fighter avoided by everyone in the first round. Eventually, Freddy Curiel would get the unenviable assignment - much to the dismay of his wife - in facing Forbes and losing a five-round verdict.

After losing his title to 'Famoso' Hernandez, two bouts later Forbes would get a crack at the WBA 130-pound title, losing to the tough Tha, Yodsanan Sor Nanthachai in August of 2004 before embarking on a five bout winning streak while fighting in near anonymity.

When asked what was going on in his career prior to 'The Contender', Forbes answers: "Nothing, man. I was fighting tune-up fights, staying sharp and I moved up to 140, so I was actually getting pretty strong. Right before the show I had knocked out Julio Sanchez-Leon, a journeyman-type guy but a guy that had been rounds with (Jose Luis) Castillo and Jesus Chavez. He had been around and I knocked him out in three rounds.
So I was just getting my momentum as far as growing into a big, strong jr. welterweight. I was just waiting for an opportunity."

Forbes admits that while his career was floundering he was growing embittered with the business of boxing.

"Oh, absolutely," says the native Las Vegan, who moved to Detroit because his wife Valerie is attending law school. "Right before the show, before I was accepted, I was really bitter. I didn't even know if I was going to even continue to fight. And I'm in the prime of my career. I'm just 29 years old but I just felt like I didn't know what was happening. You gotta kinda be in the loop - then this opportunity happened.
I jumped on it."

So as he looks back, did he enjoy his time as a 'Contender'?

“Yes, I did," he answers. “It was probably one of the best experiences I ever had in anything, not just boxing."

Having lived through the experience, just how accurately does the show depict what went on between the boxers?

“It was pretty accurate," he says. "Some stuff, man, guys almost got into fist-fights and they kinda controlled that a little bit. They didn't make it look as bad as some of the stuff really got. Everybody for the most part controlled themselves. But there were some heated arguments."

With that being said, shouldn't the producers of the show have shown this side a bit more? After all, this is supposed to be 'reality television', right? You just wonder, are the decision-makers so weary about the image of boxing and it's participants, that perhaps they want to scrub clean some the strife that existed between the fighters? But again, these are boxers - go to any gym and there is bound to be conflicts between those who strive to mark their territory.

Besides, isn't that what makes compelling TV? Let's face it, most fighters aren't sitting around together in a circle humming Kumbaya.

“I think for the future they're going to show a lot more of that because that's what happens," Forbes would say. "They showed a little more than I thought they would show."

According to him, the animosity between Walter Wright and Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage wasn't the most contentious.

“They showed that pretty good," he admits. "I mean they had some real heated arguments but it wasn't really those two. It was Aaron Torres who got into it with 'K9'"

Geez, is there anyone who got along with him?

“Yeah, that was something that they didn't show. But, no, those two, they wanted to kill each other."

But despite whatever arguments and personality conflicts may have arisen between the fellow 'Contenders', Forbes says there is a bond forged between them.

“All of us that did it, I was privileged to be part of one of 32 guys that have ever done something like that. Definitely, it's a bond between the first and second seasons for us guys to be able to go through something like that," he states, "They had cameras on us 24 hours a day, from the time you woke up till the time you went to sleep."

The show even ended up having a loyal viewer in Forbes himself.

“It hooks you in," he says. "Whether a person likes it or not, you're just kinda curious to see what happens. Especially I wanted to see - because a lot of things that happened I wasn't aware they happened - and I tuned in every week."

And the second season will culminate on Tuesday night, with Forbes battling Brewer in a scheduled 10-rounder for $500,000. The magnitude of the event doesn't escape him.

“It’s the biggest fight that I've ever had, just the biggest event. People e-mail me from Malaysia, the UK, Australia, from everywhere," he says. "It hasn't really, really, really hit me, I think once I walk into the Staples Center, I think it'll really, really, really hit me, like, 'This is a big deal.'"

MY OPINIONS ON THE CONTENDER

I don't care what anybody else thinks or says - I'm a fan of the show. But I do think it's still evolving and in need of a few tweaks.

Here are my suggestions...

- OK, the fights have to be edited. I get that completely. But lose the sound effects. This is still professional boxing and not an old episode of 'Batman'.

Also, like they did for the semi-final bouts, after an episode airs, put the complete bouts online. This accomplished two things; it would placate the purists, who want to see the complete fights. And also, it would allow the public to make up their own mind as to who won these fights.

- I want to see more conflict between the fighters. Hey, say what you will, but fighters talking trash to each other and not getting along would not only make great TV, but it would create rivalries that could perhaps make the fights more compelling.

- Let fighters set their own training/roadwork schedule. There's an old saying that you reap what you sow. Well, don't force the boxers to train. Let's see which ones are the dedicated professionals that will make the sacrifices needed to win the tournament.

- More background on the fighters. Not on the family front, because over the course of the show, we'll get to know them quite well. But I think the producers should talk more about the past exploits of their contestants inside the ring. While boxing fans may have been familiar with the careers of Forbes and Brewer, the grandmother in Peoria probably has no clue.

Drive home the point that these guys are actual professional boxers.

FINAL FLURRIES

I think the time is long overdue for a Jorge Arce-Vic Darchinyan matchup.....By the way, it was great seeing that sold-out house in Hidalgo, Texas....OK, just who has Manny Pacquiao signed with? Nobody seems to know and there are conflicting reports. I'll guess that he signed with somebody not named Murad Muhammad....College football fans, I think we know what the 'L' in John L. Smith stands for.....