Fight fans flock to Vegas for Manfredo's $1 million Contender bout

09:22 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 24, 2005

BY ANDY SMITH
Journal Television Writer

The last time a Rhode Islander won $1 million on TV, it was Richard Hatch winning the first edition of Survivor, in the summer of 2000.

AP photo

Peter Manfredo Jr. weighs in for his middleweight bout against Sergio Mora, as actor and host Sylvester Stallone, left, announces the weight at as 159lbs for the reality television show The Contender, yesterday, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Peter Manfredo Jr. will fight Sergio Mora for the $1 million prize tonight at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The Manfredo-Mora fight is scheduled for seven rounds and will take place in a special two-hour series finale shown live on NBC.

Now Providence boxer Peter Manfredo Jr. is poised to do it again. Manfredo, a contestant on NBC's boxing reality show The Contender, fights Sergio Mora for $1 million in Las Vegas tonight.

The loser will take home $250,000.

The two-hour Contender finale will start at 8 p.m. on Channels 7 and 10.

The championship fight, in the events center at Caesar's Palace casino, will be a live broadcast.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the original plan to hold the match outside was scrapped when Contender producers realized the desert heat -- at 8 p.m. on the East Coast, it's 5 p.m. in Las Vegas -- would make conditions very difficult for the fighters.

The fight itself is sold out. As of late yesterday afternoon, a pair of tickets was selling for $1,300 on eBay.

Manfredo's father and trainer, Peter Manfredo Sr., was in Las Vegas yesterday with his son.

The elder Manfredo said his son is looking strong, feeling confident, and having no trouble making the official fighting weight of 160.

A few weeks ago, he was trying to lose 10 pounds to make weight.

Manfredo Sr. said The Contender has been keeping his son very busy, talking to the media.

"From 6:45 this morning they had him doing satellite feeds all over the country. It's totally crazy," the elder Manfredo said. "I'm against it, but it's not something I have any control over."

Does he think all this distraction this will work to Manfredo's disadvantage at tonight's fight?

"Nah. The other guy's doing it, too," said his father.

The other guy, Sergio Mora, is a 25-year-old boxer from East Los Angeles known as "The Latin Snake." At 6 feet tall, he has a reach advantage over Manfredo, who's 5 feet, 9 inches tall.

Mora comes into The Contender finale with a record of 15-0. Manfredo is 24-1.

Who's favored depends on whom you talk to.

Manfredo Sr. said Las Vegas bookmakers are giving the edge to his son. (Las Vegas sports books do not give out odds over the phone.)

But an Internet betting site called Betus.com ., which operates out of Costa Rica, favors Mora.

The Contender, which was mostly shot in August and September, pitted 16 fighters against one another in a series of elimination bouts. Contestants knew the outcomes of all the fights -- except tonight's live championship.

Manfredo lost his first fight on The Contender to Alfonso Gomez Jr., but was voted back onto the show when Jeff Fraza of Haverhill, Mass., got chicken pox and was not allowed to continue.

Manfredo got his revenge by beating Gomez and advancing to the finals in a fight aired on May 15.

Also airing on tonight's show will be a match between the two runners-up, Gomez and Jesse Brinkley, which will be taped early in the day.

WHATEVER HAPPENS to Manfredo tonight, he should have plenty of home-state rooters.

According to local boxing promoter Jimmy Burchfield, who is in Las Vegas, the gambling mecca is full of Rhode Islanders who went out for the fight.

"There are so many people from Rhode Island here, the excitement and the enthusiasm is just unbelievable," Burchfield said.

"It's not only boxing people, it's lawyers, politicians . . . it seems like anyone who is anyone is out here from Rhode Island."

Burchfield said he was in one of the bars at Caesar's Palace Sunday night, which is when The Contender usually airs. By the time the night was over, he said, the whole lounge was full of Rhode Islanders.

"It was like I was in downtown Providence," Burchfield said.

FOR RHODE ISLANDERS who remain at home, there is always TV.

Channel 10, the local NBC affiliate, is taking over one of the movie theaters at the Providence Place mall and showing The Contender finale in high-definition.

But as of yesterday afternoon, a Channel 10 spokesman said there were no more seats available.

Channel 10 also sponsored a contest on its Web site that gave away a free trip to Las Vegas to see the fight. Joseph V. Occola Jr. and Joseph V. Occola IV are the lucky winners.

The Hi-Hat club in Davol Square, where the Manfredo family sponsored viewing parties to watch previous episodes of The Contender, will be showing the fight on a big screen tonight. A spokesman for the club said there's no admission charge.

IN THE TV WORLD, The Contender is up against a ratings heavyweight -- the final performances on Fox's American Idol.

The Contender has not been a ratings success for NBC. Its last broadcast on Sunday reached not quite 6 million viewers, compared to about 25 million for a typical broadcast of American Idol.

There are no plans for NBC to bring The Contender back next season.

Marc Berman, a TV analyst for MediaWeek magazine, said boxing can't attract a large enough audience.

"The premise is very limited," he said. "Boxing alienates women. A show like this will never attract a lot of female viewers . . . there's no way this was going to be a mass hit."

With reports from projo.com staff writer Jack Perry.