Serious discussions are under way that could lead to a return of “The Contender” reality series on free-to-air BBC in the United Kingdom with heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury as the host, multiple sources have told BoxingScene.
Representatives of “The Contender” are holding meetings with BBC officials this week to discuss a deal. One was held on Monday with another scheduled for Wednesday, the sources said.
The sources said the BBC is interested in doing the series, especially if England’s Fury, a renowned world champion with a larger-than-life personality made for television, will take on the host role.
Fury’s representatives and “Contender” officials have had discussions and, according to the sources, Fury is interested in the role, terming the opportunity to host the popular reality show as being “cool.”
While there is still much to be ironed out, such as the overall budget for the show, the number of episodes and the weight division, some of those items could be hammered out the meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
As far as Fury’s potential involvement, the sides still have to settle on his compensation as well as the timing of when he would have to be available to shoot the episodes so as not to interfere with a training camp. Fury is due to meet former world titlist Deontay Wilder in a third fight that is penciled in for Dec. 19 at a site to be determined.
However, there remains a good chance that Fury-Wilder III will be pushed into 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. So far, promoters have not been allowed to have spectators at fights and unless there was a huge site fee offered for Fury-Wilder III it will be difficult to do without fans in attendance and make up for million in ticket sales. The Fury-Wilder rematch on Feb. 22 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas generated a live gate of $16,916,440.
“There’s still a lot to discuss, such as when Tyson would have to go into camp and what his schedule would be for the show, but he’s interested,” one source said. “The timing of the whole thing has to be worked out.”
“The Contender” ran for five seasons in the United States, initially from 2005 to 2008 with the first season on NBC, followed by the next two on ESPN and a fourth on the now-defunct Versus cable network.
The series was revived in 2018 for a 12-episode season on cable network Epix that was hosted by retired former super middleweight and light heavyweight world champion Andre Ward. It focused on the middleweight division. Brandon Adams won a 10-round unanimous decision over Shane Mosley Jr. in the final in November 2018, a victory that ultimately paved the way for an unsuccessful world title shot against middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo in June 2019.
Sylvester Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard served as co-hosts for the first season. Leonard was the solo host for the second season followed by the actor and former professional boxer Tony Danza being on board for the fourth season and Ward for the fifth.
The general format of the show has been to have 16 fighters participate in an elimination competition in which they are split into two teams overseen by a trainer. The trainers for the 2018 revival were two of boxing’s most well-regarded cornermen: International Boxing Hall of Famer and the late Naazim Richardson
The fighters train and live together and eventually fight each other with each episode ending with an elimination fight that sends the loser packing and the winner surviving for another week until the last two standing meet in the final with the winner receiving a big purse.
Previous seasons of the series helped launch the careers of fighters such as first-season winner Sergio Mora, Cornelius "K9" Bundrage and Ishe Smith, who each went on to win world titles, as well as Alfonso Gomez, Peter Manfredo Jr., Sakio Bika and others.
Dan Rafael was ESPN.com's senior boxing writer for fifteen years, and covered the sport for five years at USA Today. He was the 2013 BWAA Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism.
