The Contender 2

The first fight is chosen by volunteers from each team. Michael Clark represents Gold and Cornelius "K9" Bundrage for Blue. Clark apparently underestimated Bundrage in the first 2 rounds, but then came back to win 2 of his own, in front of his adopted father/boxing coach and fiancee, until Bundrage throws a punch to knock Clark down in the fifth round, securing the win by majority decision (2 judges saying he won, 1 saying it was a tie).

Norberto was chosen to fight Rudy, due to the weight problem. Rudy was shown running with a sweatsuit to lose the 10 lbs in 14 hours -- both fighters weighed in at under 149 for the bout.

To the fight then, where Norberto easily won rounds 1 and 3, and Rudy stepped it up to take rounds 2 and 4. However, Norberto had enough energy to take the final round, and won by split decision, with judge Max DeLuca scoring 49-46 Norberto, judge Lou Moret scoring 48-47 Rudy, and judge Fritz Warner scoring 49-46 Norberto.

In the loft, there is a lot of trash-talking by members of both teams, setting the stage for a rivalry between Grady and Vinroy -- Vinroy accuses Grady of trying to duck out on fighting him, while Grady reminds the gold team that blue makes the decisions for this fight. There is a training scene, where Alfonso Gomez spars with several contestants. Then, Aaron is chosen to fight Gary.

During the interviews of Gary and Aaron, Gary goes over his fight strategy while Aaron spends most of his time trash-talking Gary, saying "If I lose to Gary, I'll retire!" Aaron believes Gary is a good boxer, but would not win because he didn't have enough motivation.

Gary's plan for the fight seems to be to go for a quick KO, punching hard, while Aaron is trying to box and bob his way inside Gary's reach and hold his arms when he swings big. The first round, Gary is shown landing some large shots to Aaron, but Aaron is effective at tying the bigger man up and lands some bombs of his own. In the second, Gary is the aggressor, while Aaron seems to be mostly bobbing and weaving out of the way of punches. Same for the third round, where Aaron accidentally grabs Gary's knee and lifts, knocking Gary down. Between rounds, Gary is shown bleeding, while Aaron is merely sweaty. In the fourth round, Aaron seems to hurt Gary, then slips and falls. In the fifth round, both boxers stand toe-to-toe and slug -- the ring announcer refers to it as "boxing in a phonebooth." The final result is Dr. James Jen-Kin 48-47 for Balletto, Marty Denkin 47-48 for Torres and Chuck Hassett 48-47 Balletto.

There is a training sequence, first the contestants have to stack tires in a truck with Tommy, then hit focus mitts with Jeremy. Walter is shown working hard at training, while Andre is shown as much slower and less enthusiastic. Grady spends some time talking with his family, and the teams then discuss who's fighting next. The blue team expects Vinroy to call out Grady, but the gold team uses the power to choose to play head games with the blue team. Instead, Walter toes the line, and chooses to fight Andre. There is also a scene showing a close relationship between Cornelius and Andre, where Cornelius discusses the Bible with Andre and even says he is like "a little brother".

In the fight, Andre is knocked down in the 1^st round. It seems Walter has a good chance to win the match by KO, but he gets cocky and shows off some instead. Andre never manages to win a round; Walter wins 50-44 on all three cards in the show's first unanimous victory.

• Trivia - Mig Ayesa from Rock Star: INXS is shown in the crowd before the fight. Rock Star: INXS and The Contender share the same executive producer, Mark Burnett.

There is a training sequence, with various contestants sparring with Mosely, including Walter (who uses the opportunity to try and showcase his talents). Then, they are shown running behind Tommy in a pickup truck, and Alfonso Gomez is shown sparring with them. Walter and Cornelius exchange words, setting up another rivalry on the show. The time comes for selecting the position that Walter will fight in for the quarterfinals; he indicates that he's torn between fighting first and fighting against Cornelius; when he puts his plate in the slot for week nine, Cornelius taunts him, saying "smart choice", and Walter decides to change his decision; he will fight Cornelius in the quarterfinals.

Then, the fight selection for this episode; Vinroy calls out Grady. Grady is shown talking to his wife and kids, while Vinroy calls his family back in Jamaica. Just before the fight, he is surprised by his wife and two girls showing up in the locker room. The fighters talk about their plans, and Jeff Goldblum is shown in the audience just before the introductions. Grady apparently wins the first round handily, cornering Vinroy and out-punching him; the second round has the same theme, with Grady cornering Vinroy and not letting up. In the third round, Vinroy "accidentally" headbutts Grady, cutting him by his right eye. The referee pauses the bout for the doctor to examine Grady, who is deemed fit to continue. Vinroy appears to win this round, coming behind his jab to score. Grady fights defensively in the fourth round, but Vinroy appears unable to capitalize on it, sticking with the jab only. In the fifth round, both boxers stand toe-to-toe and slug it out, which is to Grady's advantage, being shorter; later on in the round, Grady chases Vinroy around the ring, catching him on the ropes to win the round. Grady wins by unanimous decision, Dr. James Jen-Kin scoring 48-47, with Marty Denkin and Fritz Warner both scoring it 49-46.

The contestants get to meet Willie McGinest, who gives the blue team designer wristwatches as a reward for Grady's victory. The contestants train, and talk about Steve Forbes' record. The blue team argue amongst themselves about who's fighting next. When the time comes to choose, Michael Stewart chooses to fight Ebo. When the men's wives are interviewed, it turns out that the two families have become close, and Ebo's wife hopes that the relationship will continue regardless of the outcome of the fight.

The morning before the fight, Michael and Ebo have breakfast together, both commenting on how unusual it is to do so; they both say how much they respect each other in interviews.

In the first round of the fight, Ebo seemed to dominate, closing with jabs and forcing Michael to the ropes; Michael lands a couple of big shots, but not enough to win the round. In the second and third rounds, Ebo tries the same game plan, successfully, although in both cases, Michael lands more big shots than Ebo; Ebo's volume wins out. In the fourth round, Michael lands a huge left hook, stunning Ebo, and slowing him. After this point, every time they close, Michael manages to land a power punch, culminating in a knockout punch coming from a left hook. Ebo manages to rise by the count of nine, but when he is asked to walk towards the referee, he stumbles and keeps his hands down, so the referee ends the fight at that point, 1:52 in the fourth round.

After the fight, both men talk with their wives and the camera, discussing their feelings about fighting a friend; Michael seems especially broken-up, saying he'd have to pray for Ebo's family, and thanking the referee for stopping the fight before Ebo got hurt. Ebo is taken away in an ambulance as a precaution; the ring doctor indicates that he's worried that there might be slow bleeding in Ebo's brain.

After the fight selection (Freddy chooses Steve, and Nick defaults to fighting Jeff), Freddy has dinner with his family, who all express confidence in him.

On fight day, during the introductions for the first fight (Nick vs Jeff), we see Joe Pantoliano and Burt Reynolds in the crowd. The men square off in the center of the ring, trading punches, with Nick getting slightly the better of Jeff in both power and number of punches landed. Sergio and Sugar Ray comment on how good Nick's form is, and Sergio says to Burt that Nick won the round. The second round finds Jeff getting backed up by Nick, who seemingly lands body blows at will. Jeremy, Jeff's trainer, lets him know that he's down 2 rounds now. In the third round, Jeff seems to mount more of an offence, using his jab effectively to set up big punches, but Nick doesn't take it lying down, as he counters well throughout the round. Jeff is shown with a cut over his left eye in between rounds. For the fourth round, the two men again trade bows, perhaps a bit more evenly than in the first round; Jeff seems to think he won the round, as does Jeremy. Sugar Ray tells Burt that "this round here decides it." The men touch gloves and begin the round, which Nick seems to win handily, landing combinations at will, until Jeff's right hand finds Nick's left eye to slow him, opening a cut. They trade punches, where again, Nick does more work, leading to a unanimous decision win for Nick.

In the bout, Nick's plan is to out-work Steve, who chooses to bob & weave, picking his shots. Nick's plan works for the first round, which Steve (in his corner) says was lost because he was "finding his rhythm." The second round seems to go to Steve, who is shown effectively avoiding Nick's punches, and landing a number of his own. The third round seems to cut Nick's way, with his volume and power winning out. Both the fourth and fifth rounds go to Steve, apparently, as Nick has tired himself out. Steve wins by split decision (one judge for Nick, the rest for Steve). After the fight, Nick confirms that he punched himself out; he was too tired to maintain his offense in the end of the bout.

There is a training sequence, with Cornelius in the ring sparring, and trying to taunt Walter. The two are shown having words in a number of situations; Cornelius says, in an interview, that he's trying to get under Walter’s skin to gain a psychological edge in their bout. The two men talk about their very similar family histories in interviews, and get to spend some time with their loved ones before the fight – Cornelius with his wife and son at a local park, Walter with his girlfriend and uncle (who essentially adopted Walter in his teen years).

During the fight, the first three rounds all played out fairly similarly, with Cornelius getting in close, smothering Walter, tying up his arms, and hitting while holding; Cornelius appears to win the 1st round, Walter the 2nd and 3rd. Cornelius receives several warnings from the referee for various fouls, including a headbutt, culminating in the referee coming to his corner in between the 3rd and 4th rounds, asking "do you want me to have to take a point away? Knock it off!" The later rounds are cleaner, but Walter seemingly couldn’t put out enough volume to impress the judges, so Cornelius wins 2 more rounds and a unanimous decision.

The fight is a repetition of five rounds that all look alike; Stewart tries to set up a one-punch knockout, and Brewer bobs and weaves to make him miss, while setting up counterpunches. In between rounds, Tommy congratulates Grady while reminding him not to get cocky, while Jeremy exhorts Michael to try and win the round, despite Michael's seeming lack of heart. The result is a 50-45 shutout on all three cards.

There is a final training sequence, with Jeremy and Tommy encouraging their respective boxers, planning their final bout before the finals.

For the final two bouts, all twelve of the men knocked out of the tourney get ringside seats. We see Joe Pantoliano again in the audience, as well as Dennis Miller and his wife. The Forbes-Bundrage fight plays out a bit like the Bundrage-Wright; Cornelius comes out hitting hard, trying to hold and tie up Steve. However, in this case, Forbes is a better boxer than Bundrage; he manages to escape the holds, and throws several flurries that win him rounds, and ultimately the match.