I was thinking... what better a way to help guarantee that Ishe and Jesse advance further than to make sure that as many of the better fighters are gone for the next round?

Let's just say that you ranked the 6 remaining fighters from 1 to 10 based on boxrec.com's World Rankings

Tony - 81st (7/10)
Jimmy - 143rd (7/10)
Tarick - Not Ranked (probably 5/10)
Juan - Not Ranked (probably 5/10)
Joey - 289th (4/10)
Brent - 418th (2/10)

The easy way to get rid of one of the top 2 guys is to have one knock the other off so you don't have to worry about one of them. Tarick and Juan are unknowns, so have them fight each other, and Joey and Brent are weak. If they fight each other, one will be left for the picking in the 2nd round.

Setting up these fights this way guarantees that Tony and Jimmy are not both around in the 2nd round, and guarantees that either Joey or Brent (maybe the two weakest guys) will be around in round 2.

That is why they are pissed. Tony and Jimmy will be in round 2 and Joey and Brent will both most likely be gone.

• Disagree,AyaK, 01:07 PM, 04-05-05
  • Reid is overrated,CubsFan05, 01:25 PM, 04-05-05
• RE: Pre-arranged matches favor Ishe and Jesse,Da Contenda, 01:13 PM, 04-05-05
  • RE: Pre-arranged matches favor Ishe and Jesse,VegasFightWriter, 01:31 PM, 04-05-05
    • I hope the matches are stretched to 7 rounds,CubsFan05, 01:37 PM, 04-05-05
      • RE: I hope the matches are stretched to 7 rounds,TroyGun25, 11:57 PM, 04-05-05
        • RE: I hope the matches are stretched to 7 rounds,JayT, 10:55 AM, 04-07-05
• RE: Pre-arranged matches favor Ishe and Jesse,RocketAudy, 07:56 PM, 04-06-05
• RE: Pre-arranged matches favor Ishe and Jesse,Agman2, 04:29 PM, 01-28-16

Since Ishe has already promised his teammates that he's going to fight Anthony next round, it doesn't look like he was eager to duck Anthony.

Here's what we think we know about the quarterfinals:

Ishe v. Anthony
Alfonso v. Peter rematch (or will this be in the semifinals? I guess it depends on the format for the quarterfinals)

That leaves Jesse, Sergio, and the two remaining winners (probably Jimmy and whomever). It looks like there might be one mismatch.

And Tommy made it clear that they all knew Brent was the weakest boxer there, at least after Jeff Fraza left. See his commentary on the website:
http://contender.tv.yahoo.com/01/theshow/fight/episode6_2.html
Brent was the weakest link, I think everybody knew it, and that's why Anthony chose him.

Seems to me that both teams saw Round 1 as an effort to give everyone one "fair" fight, not as a way to boost the chances of the stronger guys. Heck, each of the good boxers took on a TOUGH opponent in Round 1. Why would they suddenly go hunting for easy matches in the next round?

I don't think they prearranged fights until after those two were in the 2nd round, did they?

Plus, I think that Jonathon Reid is very overrated. Other than his loss to Joppy (in a fight where he was a replacement), he fights a ton of creampuffs. I think he has only 3 fights against players in the top 240 in the world in his career (Joppy, Jesse Brinkley, and Lee Fortune). He beat Fortune, who is only 6-10 since fighting Reid.

Bonsante and Reid both fought Tony Ayala Jr during his comeback. Ayala knocked out Reid, and Bonsante knocked out Ayala.

I guarantee that Brinkley knew that Reid was overrated.

Finally someone else gets it!! I made a post about that yesterday...of course the west is pi$$ed at Tony, because they wanted the best 2 fighters left to square off against each other. And by arranging Joey and Brent to fight, they would be guaranteed that one of them would be there for the picking in Round 2.
I honestly thought everyone else was blind to this (at least all those bashing Anthony).
Now Anthony has a ticked off Ishe to deal with, but at least he is still in the competition.
By the way, here is my response to a previous post:
Favorite: Tony
Least Favorite: Ishe "the trash-talking hypocrite" Smith

But they don't know how the second round matches are going to be organized yet, so it's tough for them to arrange things to their liking. Plus,if the rumor I have heard about the second round is correct, two very tough fighters get drawn against each other.

These 5 round bouts leave no room for error. Seven rounds would be much better.

Da Contender's and CubsFan 05's logic is perfect and Tony went in and screwed up Jesse and Ishe's plans. I've been saying the same thing about these 5 round fights also. Time will only tell who's going to be moving on. Does anyone think the West will turn down the reward for Tony's win? I bet they do.

No way they turn down the reward....except maybe Ishe. That would be great if they did though!

They'll give him a hard time when he gets his golden glove neckless I bet.

LAST EDITED ON 04-06-05 AT 07:58 PM (EST)

Sure you could look at it that way. But another way to look at it is that by having the best fighters fight each other, it's the FAIREST structure for everyone. Plus it makes closer fights for the viewer. Do we really need to see #81 beat the crap out of #418? I'm sure if it was a free-for-all, ALL the fighters would have liked to take the easy way out and fight Brent. It seems like the fighters were trying to do the right thing for everyone (including us, the viewers.) But Anthony had to be a lying punk and take the easy fight instead of proving himself in a more evenly matched fight.

Dude, You have no clue what you are talking about!