The Providence boxer will square off against Sergio Mora for $1 million tomorrow night in the only episode of The Contender to be broadcast live.

09:04 AM EDT on Monday, May 23, 2005

Peter Manfredo Jr., the 24-year-old boxer from Providence, will face Sergio Mora tomorrow in the final, live broadcast of the boxing reality show The Contender.

The semifinal fight was broadcast last night on NBC, but it was filmed last fall, so Manfredo has known for some time who his final competitor would be (although he was forbidden to reveal it). Boxing Web sites have been circulating rumors that Mora would defeat Jesse Brinkley in last night's episode.

There are no rumors about tomorrow's show, which airs at 8 p.m. on Channel 10, because it's the only episode to be broadcast live from Las Vegas. At stake: $1 million.

The win in last night's episode came by unanimous decision after seven rounds.

Manfredo, who grew up on Federal Hill and in Silver Lake and attended Mount Pleasant High School, trained in his father's Pawtucket gym. He said he virtually lived in the gym, because his father wanted to keep him out of trouble.

As a class "clown" who didn't excel in school, Manfredo hoped to achieve success through boxing. He turned pro at 19 and compiled a 21-0 record; the World Boxing Organization ranked him third in the world as a junior middleweight.

Manfredo now lives in Johnston with his pregnant wife and their 3-year-old daughter.

Mora, the boxer he will fight tomorrow, is known as "the Latin Snake" and is undefeated as a pro. According a biography on the show's Web site, Mora, 25, grew up in East Los Angeles, and like Manfredo, turned to boxing to stay out of trouble.

Though he grew up in a ghetto, Mora said he stayed away from gangs out of "respect for his mother and the desire for a better life," his Web biography says. He hopes to make enough money boxing to allow his mother to quit her job in a warehouse and travel the world.

Actor Sylvester Stallone and boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard teamed up with Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor and The Apprentice, to make The Contender. The show hasn't attracted a huge audience by TV standards, but it's attracted more people than typically watch boxing.