Tonight at 8, NBC will air his semifinal bout in the boxing reality show.

01:17 PM EDT on Sunday, May 15, 2005

BY ANDY SMITH
Journal Television Writer

Boxer Peter Manfredo Jr. is training like a man with a big fight still in front of him.

Digital extra

Multimedia : Take a closer look at Contender semifinalist Peter Manfredo Jr. of Providence, narrated by Journal sports writer Rob Lee

In his father's gym, on the third floor of an old brick mill building in Pawtucket, Manfredo is shadowboxing, circling the floor while a digital clock marks the three-minute rounds.

He's wearing a heavy, sweatshirt-style top made of plastic to help him sweat. Manfredo is trying to lose 10 pounds, to get down to a fighting weight of 159.

The plastic top makes a noise -- fooooooosh! fooooosh! -- every time he moves. When he takes it off, he's covered with perspiration.

His father and trainer, Peter Manfredo Sr., helps him put on a pair of white boxing gloves. Then Manfredo attacks the heavy bag, which starts to swing under the force of his blows.

The bag makes a noise, too, a heavy "thwap!" when Manfredo digs in a vicious hook.

Manfredo is now one of four finalists on the NBC boxing reality show The Contender, which airs Sunday nights at 8.

The show, which began in January, pitted 16 boxers against each other in a series of elimination bouts. The last two fighters left will fight for $1 million, in a bout to be broadcast live from Las Vegas on May 24.

Manfredo is scheduled to fight in tonight's episode. If he wins, he will be one of the fighters going to Vegas. Several boxing Web sites are predicting that he will beat Alfonso Gomez Jr. in tonight's bout.

Manfredo knows the outcome, since every fight except the live championship has already been filmed. But strict network confidentiality rules prevent him from telling.

The rigor of his recent workouts seems to suggest he is working up to championship form. But Manfredo points out that, along with the championship fight, The Contender finale will also feature "fan-favorite" matches. "You have to be ready to fight," he says.

MANFREDO, 24, has been getting ready his whole life.

He was raised in Providence, first in Federal Hill, and then in Silver Lake. But mostly, he grew up in his father's gym.

His dad, 49, was a champion kickboxer who taught martial arts and boxing, first in his basement and then in his own gyms. Young Peter started martial-arts training when he was 4, and boxing when he was 7. He had his first bout when he was 9.

His father said he wanted to keep Peter close by and out of trouble, which meant he went from home, to school, to the gym, and back home again. Period.

"I was in the gym, always in the gym," said Manfredo as he sat on the edge of the boxing ring in Manfredo's Gym, taping his hands before his workout.

"Why? Because he [his father] wanted to watch me, he didn't want the street to suck me up, because he grew up on the street, and he knew what it was like.

"Like any other kid, you sit and you watch something, and you want to do it.

"I watched my sister take karate, I wanted to take karate. I watched other guys boxing, like my father, and I wanted to box. And here I am now."

Manfredo went to Mount Pleasant High School, which is where he met his wife, Yamilka. She said she wasn't looking for a boyfriend at the time, but Peter kept insisting they go on just one date.

They now live in Johnston with their daughter, Alexis, who turns 3 on May 23. There's another daughter on the way.

Manfredo said he was not exactly an A student in high school. Not even a B student.

"I was kind of a clown," he said. "I'd get in trouble in school, my Dad used to make me grab the broom and sweep up the gym. He said, that's what you'll be doing for the rest of your life. . . . I can't sing, I can't dance, I'm not going to be a lawyer. I thought maybe I could do something with the game [boxing]."

Manfredo's parents are divorced. His mother, Lori Manfredo, is a waitress at Angelo's Civita Farnese, on Federal Hill. She supports her son's dreams, but never really liked him boxing.

"I don't think any mother wants their son to box, seeing their son get hit," she said. "I'd prefer to see him play golf or tennis. But he grew up in a family where his dad fought, and that's what he wanted to do.

"He always said, 'I want to be on a Wheaties box. Breakfast of Champions!' "

Manfredo was 19 when he turned pro. He compiled a record of 21-0, and he was ranked third in the world as a junior middleweight by the World Boxing Organization.

One night last year, he said, he got a phone call from Vinny Pazienza, who told him he had just spoken with Frank Stallone, Sylvester Stallone's brother.

Paz said that Sylvester Stallone, along with Sugar Ray Leonard and reality TV mastermind Mark Burnett (Survivor, The Apprentice) were going to do a boxing show, and they were looking for fighters.

They were having tryouts in Brockton, Mass. Manfredo went, and ultimately became one of the 16 fighters on The Contender.

WHY DO IT?

"For one, a million dollars," said Manfredo. "Not only that, the publicity. A fighter needs publicity. I was 21-0, but what was I really making?"

Manfredo said that when he beat Anthony Bonsante a year ago, at the Rhode Island Convention Center, he made $15,000. Before expenses.

"You really end up with nothing, and you just fought 12 tough rounds with someone who's trying to kill you," he said.

(Coincidentally, Bonsante also became a contestant on The Contender. He was eliminated in last week's episode.)

Manfredo's father had mixed feelings about the show.

"I really didn't want him to go on The Contender at first, because I wouldn't be involved," he said. "We've had a lifetime together. I know how to get the best out of him.

"But then I thought, where else is he going to have a shot to make that kind of money? I had to say go ahead."

Manfredo said the show was an odd experience. The fighters all lived together in a communal space above the gym in Los Angeles. Although Yamilka and Alexis were also in California, Manfredo said he got to see them only about once a week.

He lost the very first fight, to Gomez.

Manfredo said he was devastated. He missed having his father with him.

"If I do something wrong, I know he's got my back, and he'll correct it. You need that guy who knows how to get you sharp, a guy who can push your buttons, and I didn't have that there," Manfredo said.

Then his luck changed. One of the contestants, Jeff Fraza of Haverhill, Mass., got chicken pox, and the doctors took him out of the show. The remaining fighters had to vote someone back in, and they picked Manfredo.

He said it was not an act of charity.

"They voted me back because they thought I was vulnerable at the time and they could beat me," Manfredo said.

But he won his next two broadcast fights, including one in which his father flew out from Rhode Island to be with him.

He also won a truck, when one of the other Contenders, Joey Gilbert, deliberately lost a contest and allowed Manfredo to win.

Manfredo said he's not quite sure exactly what Gilbert had in mind.

"My theory is that nice guys get nice things," said Manfredo with a smile.

The Contender has not been a ratings success for NBC. As of last week, it had about 6.3 million viewers each week. That compares with 25.5 million viewers for American Idol, 21.2 million for Survivor: Palau.

By boxing standards, though, 6.3 million is a big number. Ray Stallone (no relation to Sylvester), a spokesman for HBO Sports, said HBO's broadcast of the John Ruiz-James Toney heavyweight fight on April 30 drew 2.2 million viewers.

But Stallone said it's unfair to compare the HBO fight and The Contender. "The Contender is entertainment, it's not boxing," he said.

Even with weak ratings, The Contender has meant a big jump in exposure for Manfredo.

Last weekend, he made a promotional appearance at the Trim Barbershop, in Warwick. On a raw, rainy Saturday afternoon, a steady line of people waited to see Manfredo, who posed for photos and signed autographs.

He was cordial to everyone, but lit up when he saw kids, such as 6-year-old Brendan Narcisco of Riverside, East Providence. Brendan, a Contender fan, was wearing red boxing gloves the size and consistency of small pillows. Manfredo signed them.

"The publicity I'm getting . . . around New England, around the world, that's surreal to me," Manfredo said.

"Because I'm the same Peter Manfredo I was before the show. It's crazy how television gives you celebrity status now."

Digital Extra: Take a multimedia look at Rhode Island boxer Peter Manfredo Jr., narrated by Journal sports writer Rob Lee, at:

http://projo.com/extra/2005/manfredo/multimedia.html