Contender Asia revisited.
By Mike LNg
Its been close to the one year mark since the announcement of Contender Asia’s 2nd Season host country, Malaysia was awarded the bid for the reality TV show.
Stephan Fox, Vice-President of WMC
Despite well heated press releases that the Mark Burnett production would begin shooting soon partnered with Dreamworks SKG and OSYS Group, nothing has come of it. Apparently the new, new date is June 2010 to even begin the shooting of this project. Clifton Brown and Stephan Fox, vice-president of the World Muay Thai Council (WMC) himself were named the ‘mentors’ of the boxers set to participate in the show.
Qualification tournaments were held from Cape Town, South Africa to London and even in Thailand. In Thailand Kem Sitsongpeenong would win his qualification event but would be denied on to the show from excuses varying from his inability to speak English and airport delays. Stephan Fox has publicly stated his sanctioning body the WMC had no role in this decision and were powerless to take appropriate action despite being free to provide a trophy belt for the winner of this event.
There has been speculation that the show altogether is in jeopardy for multiple reasons:
1. Its unlikely any active fighter will place himself on indefinite hold for over a year while stalling their careers out waiting to fight.
2. Its equally unlikely that the producers have raised money sufficient from sponsors and speculative ad revenue to press forward.
3. Its been proven by a margin American audiences don’t care. In the first season of the Contender the show was pulled off the air and relegated to embedded video on the Versus website. Because golf got better ratings.
At this juncture I would not rule out a second season of Contender Asia coalescing but with all the issues with WMC’s credibility I strongly doubt it’ll do more than a minor ripple in the United States and among discerning Muay Thai followers.
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