The Finale - The Computer Wizard takes it All

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The Rematches

I am trying to make up for the absence of the last 10 episodes of the show. I know this blog went defunct at the most exciting parts and I'm really sorry. I have got all the episodes in my computer and I'll probably try to string them into a single file and upload it, when I have the time.

I am going to make it up by posting the rematches here and also the final match between Yod and JWP. I remember how spectacular the atmosphere was at the show. Everyone should've been there.

The Grudge Match - Rafik vs Dzhabar

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The well-deserved re-match - Zidov vs Zach

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The Return of the Contenders

I know I've been gone for awhile. Never got to finish this blog. I apologise for the sudden disappearance.

17th September 2008 - The Return of the Contenders!

The most anticipated match, for most, of the Contender Asia was that of Yodsaenklai and JWP. Those of us who were at the Indoor Stadium Singapore will remember the the intense fight, a whole of five rounds with Yod taking victory. Remember Nareupol and how he barely performed in his fight with Yod? That was, indeed, disappointing.

Two Thai fighters, Yodsaenklai and Nareupol will once again grace the ring in Singapore. Held at the Jurong East National Stadium this time, the impact is sure to be similar to that of the Indoor Stadium. Other Contender superstars like Soren and Zach will be competing for world title belts - Soren against Nareupol for the Intercontinental belt and Zach against famed Japanese champion Takeshi for the WMC Asian Challenge.

Tickets are sold at http://www.contenderasia.com.

Soren's famous Brazilian Kick in Episode 5

It is famously known as Brazilian kicks but Muay Thai gyms teach it too. I suppose it is a different variation of Muay Thai Roundhouse kicks. K-1 commentators generally regard this as a "Brazilian Kick". Glaube Feitosa is pretty famous for knock-outs with this technique.

Here's a good tutorial on it:


The difference between the "Brazilian Kick" and the typical Muay Thai roundhouse is that the Brazilian Kick uses power more from the lower part of the leg than the hips. I believe the effectiveness of a kick like this would depend not only on technique but also the weight of the leg. Well, whether it is truely Muay Thai or not, this kick looks pretty lethal.

Contender Asia Episode 5 FULL

For the rest of us.

Episode 5 - Alain gets his rematch. Soren sends him home.

The Tiger Kings are on a lucky streak and emerged victorious once again. This time, both teams had to pull a truck at both ends and whichever team crosses his finishing line first, wins the challenge. The Tiger Kings were rewarded to a $500 shopping spree on eBay for their victory.

Zidov was pretty pissed off at the reward. He remarked that in his country, if you get rewarded $500 for pulling a truck, everyone will be pulling trucks all over the country for as long as they had to. Pretty true. These Contenders have been very pampered. Even the average Singaporean don't get to spend like this. Lucky guys. Zidov's from Switzerland by the way.

The Tiger Kings were pretty spontaneous in their deliberation this time round. Zach, Soren and Dzhabar wanted to fight. As a spanish tradition, as suggested by Pitu, three matchsticks were cut into different lengths and whoever draws the longest matchstick gets his fight. I don't know how it feels, sitting around the loft for weeks, months now actually, just to wait for your one fight. I would think it gets pretty frustrating and when the time comes, you want to get your fight over and done with. However, if you lose, you'd definitely miss days sitting around the loft doing nothing but training and eating. Something like a post-holiday nostalgia I think.

Well anyway, I am pretty impressed by the way Soren fights. No wonder the Thais say he's got talent and gave him the name Mongtongkong. He's a really technical guy. We don't see much power in his punches and kicks but when it comes to technique, he is way up there. Here is a video of Soren's previous fights.

He injured Alain with an elbow to his right forehead and the fight had to be stopped as the cut was too long and deep. The result was a technical knock out to Soren. Alain has got respect from his team mates to be a fighter who has a lot of mental power. Given his disease (Crohn's disease), Alain had to have 13 inches of his intestines removed. This sometimes affected his fighting capabilities but have duly helped to increase his threshold for pain. To be fair, Alain was sick for two weeks prior to his fight and it was impressive in itself to have been able to withstand that many knees to his stomach.

Each week it gets harder to see a Contender leave and I am even starting to feel sorry for the Wild Boars. It does have some effect on the show huh, now that Rafik is gone?

P.S: Video will be up in the next hour or two.

Showtimes for Episode 5 on AXN

Wednesday, 13th Feb, 9pm

Repeat Telecast
Thursday, 14th Feb, 12am (Note that this is Wednesday, 12MN)
Thursday, 14th Feb, 12pm
Saturday, 16th Feb, 8am
Saturday, 16th Feb, 6pm
Sunday, 17th Feb, 1am

Contender Asia Episode 4 - Tiger Kings win again

I'm terribly sorry for the late video. Stage6 fucked up and won't upload my video but here it is. I won't type in any synopsis this time. For those who haven't watched it, enjoy.

Chinese New Year Flurry

Sorry guys, i haven't had time to upload the video. Will be up by tonight.

Showtimes for Episode 4 on AXN

Wednesday, 6th Feb, 9pm

Repeat Telecast
Thursday, 7th Feb, 12am (Note that this is Wednesday, 12MN)
Thursday, 7th Feb, 12pm
Saturday, 9th Feb, 8am
Saturday, 9th Feb, 6pm
Sunday, 10th Feb, 1am

Rumble of the KINGS

Föreställningen består denna gång av en 8-man turnering i mellanvikt där vinnaren kvalar vidare till Mark Burnetts dokusåpa, Contender Muaythai, som spelar in sin andra säsong i Singapore december 2008.

Utöver detta så kvalar vinnaren även till K-1 Max Final 16:th i Japan 2009.

Turneringens silvermedaljör kvalar till WMC-S1 8-manna turneringsfinalen som arrangeras den 5 december i Bangkok till äran av Hans Majestät kungen av Thailands födelsedag.

Förutom turneringen så bjuder kvällen på flera K-1/Thaiboxning superfight med några av världens bästa kampsportare i olika viktklasser.

Matcherna och mer information kring dessa kommer att publiceras successivt fram till galan.


Information till pressen kommer att publiceras under menyn PRESS.

Date: Saturday, May 31:st 2008
Place: Hovet arena, Stockholm – Sweden
Seats: 9 500
Doors open: 17:00.
Opening fight: 18:00
Opening Ceremoni: 19:00
Closing Ceremony: 22:30

Tickets: www.ticnet.se or call 077-170 70 70
taken from http://www.k-1.se/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=94&Itemid=40

Someone translate please?

Contender Asia Episode 3 FULL Video

Many thanks to lazy_m for uploading the FULL version of episode 3. The only version that has been going around on the net so far has been the pre-released version, with one missing scene. I am so thankful for this upload because I missed this episode. I was so fed up with the pre-released one. I'll return the favor soon! To the rest of us, enjoy! :)

Episode 3 - Tiger Kings win, Rafik goes home.

Rafik's cockiness after their double victory lost him respect from the Tiger Kings, his team mates and even Stephan Fox. The Tiger Kings were so pissed off they swore to win their next challenge and, their ultimate goal for their first victory was to send Rafik home.

I will not attempt to talk more about the challenge. I thought it was a good challenge because it emphasized a lot on fighting techniques and power. Well anyway, the Wild Boars lost the challenge because Rafik dropped the weight into the pool and couldn't get it back up on time. It was such a close match but the victory went to the Tiger Kings. Finally, it was their turn to experience the sweet smell of victory. They were rewarded to an afternoon at the Laguna Golf Resort.

Episode 3 has most commonly been classified as The Brawl. Rafik and Dzhabar - one cocky as hell, one hot headed as hell. It wasn't a matter of who provoked whom at the moment before the brawl happened but it was more a matter of accumulated anger and how much Rafik have pissed the Tiger Kings off. The Wild Boars were all cocky after their victories but anger was directed at Rafik and not the entire team. As Zach mentioned on his blog, we weren't given the benefit of witnessing the extent of Rafik's cockiness and because it is reality TV, some things had to be edited off to show off certain charateristics. Living with Rafik was probably very unbearable.

The Captains' Fight - JWP felt that it was his responsibility to send Rafik home because he was the captain of the Tiger Kings and because of that, he had the duty to protect his team members. The deliberation process began with JWP volunteering and hotheaded Dzhabar eager to fight Rafik, for revenge. What do you think will be the outcome if Dzhabar had fought Rafik instead?

JWP wasn't at his best, of course. It was quite disappointing actually. Rafik got him almost everytime he used his elbows. Yes, Rafik had quality elbows but other than that JWP was dominating the match, chasing him around the ring, falling all over the place, no doubt, but landed plenty hard punches on him. There are a lot of forums talking about Rafik and I suppose this was what Rafik wanted, to be famous, to be popular, to let the world know what French Muay Thai is all about. Rafik got famous after his challenge to Yodsaenklai and after his fight with JWP, one of the world's best fighters, he will definitely be remembered and respected, if not for his personality, for his fighting spirit.

Big mouth, great fighter. I can't decide if he has a small or big heart. There has to be something about him, considering that Yodsaenklai and Naruepol both asked him to corner for them when they fought at Paris. Dzhabar is still waiting to fight Rafik. When that happens, it will be the most exciting event.

At the end of the show, Rafik commented that fighting was easy, it was living with the others that was difficult. We all raised our eyebrows to his comment but well, we respect him for his fight, he did well. Some of us are sad that he's gone, some of us celebrate. I personally think the show might become a little less spicy without the Frenchie but who knows, we just gotta wait and see. 3 episodes down, 3 fighters gone, 12 more episodes to go. Can't wait.

Application for Season 2 Contenders!

Rumors has it that filming for Season 2 begins in October 2008. Honestly, I wasn't even expecting a Season 2 but now that word has gotten out, fans should have more to look forward to. I'm hoping that they'll be filming in Singapore again but I do think that they should venture into Thailand. After all, it's pretty absurd to do such an important show out of its home.

Anyway, the official website has an ongoing application for Season 2 contenders. The form allows you either recommend your friend or yourself for the next show. I personally think that there are quite a few awesome local (Singapore) fighters with great fight records and should attempt to represent Singapore this time round. Here's the link to the form:

http://contenderasia.com/index.php/content/view/140/193/

It just occurred to me that the female counterpart of The Contender Asia is actually Fight Girls. I know Gina Carano was in the show but we don't get to see it here. Anyone knows where to get the full season?

Rafik - Dzhabar brawl (SPOILER!)

I don't know how people get to watch videos that have yet to be released and it's probably a serious infringement of copyright. Warning: This will be a show spoiler! You'll get to see it on TV tmr but for the benefit of the-rest-of-us, here it is:



Send Frenchie home!

Showtimes for Episode 3 (GMT +08:00)

Wednesday, 30th Jan, 9pm on AXN.

Repeat telecast:

Thursday, 31st Jan, 12pm on AXN
Thursday, 31st Jan, 12MN on AXN
Saturday, 2nd Feb, 8.30am on AXN
Saturday, 2nd Feb, 6pm on AXN

The Contender Asia - Episode 2 FULL

Enjoy.

Contender Asia Episode 2 - Sean sends James home

Disagreements are already beginning to surface. Not something we're not expecting - a house of 16 Muay Thai fighters who will in the end fight each other. The main target for disagreement is the Wild Boar's leader, Rafik, and apparently was a consensus between both groups.

"Hey Frenchie, You, Big Mouth, Small Heart" - This was a comment made by Yodsaenklai to Rafik, just before the choosing of fighters. Coming back to the beginning of the show, Rafik tried to throw reverse psychology on his team mates, telling his team out of the blue that Yodsaenklai wants to fight Sean, and these words were apparently from Yodsaenklai himself. The rest of the team, of course, didn't believe him, unless what he said did come true. In fact, they thought it was pretty fucked up of him. And of course, we don't forget the famous challenge Rafik once proposed to Yodsaenklai at the home of Fairtex. The video can be found here.

There is something about Rafik, the propensity of him betraying his team for the sake of himself, I would say, is rather high. Doubleheaded, they call him, and a definite watch on the show. While watching the show, I began to wonder if some things that were said and done were actually scripted. Let's take for example Yodsaenklai-JWP's conversation on the first episode when Yodsaenklai took out the belt he won from JWP in Sydney, Australia. That part was scripted, definitely. Or how about James' part in the recap when he wrote "Trevor the tiger heart was here"? This Rafik part, however, could possibly be just mere coincidence such a fighter was chosen to be on the show. Whatever it is, I personally think that he doesn't have a very attractive attitude.

Recap
Naruepol shared with the crew after his fight - "In my last fight, I fought for Thailand, my father, mother and my camp manager. I’m a Thai fighter. I miss home everyday but I’m not finished with my job." There's something about Thai people I cannot put a word to but I have a lot of respect, for them; not only because they can fight well but that they have a non-defeatist spirit; focused, strong, determined people and I suppose this kind of spirit is what makes up most of the national sport.

Inside the Tiger Kings' room, the team members were shocked to see Trevor's bed empty and his stuff gone. It was a pretty emotional moment when they realized that they weren't even given the opportunity to say goodbye. James wrote on the wall behind Trevor's bed - "Trevor the Tiger Heart was here". The Wild Boars, on the other hand, were getting smug over their victory and Naruepol described the fight as "Easy, easy" with cocked eyebrows. There was then another showcase of Rafik's over-competitive attitude.

The Challenge
Unfortunately for the Tiger Kings, they seem to be on an unlucky streak. This time they lost the challenge by a matter of milli-seconds.

The teams met Jaymee and Stefan at the Singapore River, clad in team-colored shirts and bandanas. Their challenge for this episode was Dragon Boat racing. The first team to cross the finishing line wins. Previously determined to upset the Wild Boars, the Tiger Kings found themselves pissed off at the Wild Boars after the terrible defeat. Fingers, once again, were pointed at Rafik. Rafik's over-confident and competitive personality was beginning to annoy the hell out of the Tiger Kings, throwing not only snide remarks but getting smug about their eventual victory. I'm not saying that the rest of the team was less snideful that he is but Rafik pissed the Tiger Kings off, especially because he was the team leader and most of them, especially JWP cannot wait to send him home. The Wild Boars were rewarded to a treat on a luxury yacht off Sentosa Islands while the Tiger Kings were sent back to the loft.

Who is a better team leader? I have both my hands up for John Wayne. Yes, his team lost two challenges. I personally think that the Tiger Kings lack the kind of spirit and motivation evident in the Wild Boars. Rafik's persona of a "cheerleader" is influential. He is able to garner support from his team mates and influence his team mates to work together. Everything on his side is pretty easy, everyone's feeling happy and the atmosphere is light and victorious. John Wayne's side, however, seizes an astronomical amount of heavy air. Probably bogged down by the pressure of losing more team mates. However, John Wayne's attitude towards losing is diplomacy. He acts like a big brother to the rest of his team, a lot of warmth and trust, which is something the other team lacks.

Hands up for John Wayne.

The fight - Sean redeems himself
Sean was the last to be chosen to represent the Wild Boars. I believe Sean wasn't chosen first not because he wasn't a good fighter but because his reputation was kept pretty much under wraps and had an overall of only 31 fights. This time round, he was eager to fight. He volunteered himself and the team cheered him on. The Wild Boars knew their best bets at winning the Tiger Kings were to fight either Zach or James. Sean picked James.

James, himself, didn't have much of a reputation and Sean thought he was the best bet. James had a lot of emotions in him at that time and as Preacher said, one shouldn't carry too much emotions into the ring.

James lost the fight to, I would say, his toe cramp. It was no doubt that Sean was dominating most of the first round. However, James himself was doing pretty well too. He had quite a few good moves and I think both of them are pretty much on par in terms of skills and power. The match could possibly result in a draw if not for the toe cramp. ContenderAsiaFans again gave an excellent play-by-play commentary on the fight.

Overall, great episode, more training videos this time round. Things are finally beginning to roll.

Showtimes for Episode 2 (GMT +08:00)

Wednesday, 23rd Jan, 9pm on AXN

Replay telecast

Thursday, 24th Jan, 12 pm on AXN
Thursday, 24th Jan, 12MN on AXN
Saturday, 26th Jan, 8am on AXN
Saturday, 26th Jan, 6pm on AXN

The Contender Asia - Episode 1 FULL

Okay, I'm not too sure if this is allowed but please please don't make me take it down. Finally, the full episode of The Contender Asia. For those who haven't seen the episode or would like to watch a replay, here it is! Download it before they make me take it down though.