In a double shocker, huge underdog Joey Gilbert (now 9-0, 7 KOs) defeated Jimmy Lange (now 24-2-1, 17 KOs), the boxer Anthony Bonsante was too chicken to fight, in a five-round unanimous decision to complete the first round of NBC's The Contender, while last week's winnerJuan de la Rosa claimed sufficient injury to pull out of the competition, leaving just seven first-round winners left after eight episodes.
With one fight in the first round still remaining, one thing is certain on NBC's The Contender reality competition boxing show : an Arab-American will not win the million-dollar first prize.
In the sixth episode of NBC's reality-competition boxing show The Contender, the West's Anthony "The Bullet" Bonsante (now 26-4-3, 15 KOs) stopped the East's Brent Cooper (now 20-3-2, 15 KOs) at 0:38 of the third round. However, the victory may have cost Anthony more than the place in the second round that he gained is worth.
The "angel on his shoulder" -- his wife Yamilka -- propelled the East's Peter Manfredo Jr. (now 22-1, 10 KOs) to a stunning come-from-behind win over the West's Miguel Espino (now 9-2-1, 3 KOs) in his "second chance" on the fifth episode of NBC's The Contender. All three judges scored the five-round bout 48-47 (3 rounds for Peter, 2 for Miguel), giving the East its first win in the series.