The Contender: Asia

We all know about the boxing reality show, The Contender, hosted by Sugar Ray Leonard and Sylvester Stallone. Well, this year, there's an Asian branch of that airing on AXN and it's based around Muay Thai boxing... real Muay Thai. I'm not talking about those kickboxing matches with all of those rules that limit a fighter's moves. In The Contender: Asia, they can do all of the traditional Muay Thai moves... elbows, knees, throws, etc. The fighters are all professionals too... Yodsaenklai, John Wayne Parr, Naruepol Fairtex, Rafik Bakkouri, to name a few. The action is hardcore, unlike American boxing. You can't escape getting hit my hugging your opponent or you might get elbowed or thrown. I only saw a few episodes so far, but naturally the matches with the Thai fighters are very one-sided. And the ones with the Americans/Canadians are one-sided in the other direction. The interesting ones are with the other fighters. The challenges that happen before the matches aren't really exciting at all, so you can kind of doze off for the first half, but your eyes will be stuck to the screen for the 2nd.

Related Links: AXN, The Contender: Asia