By Angel "Big Papo" Mercado
February 12, 2009

Finishing off the Blue team, the Gold moves on in the tournament having to take each other out.  The six remaining fighters have the biggest challenge of all at hand.  The close friendship the Gold team has formed must now be put aside.  Nothing personal for the Gold, just business!

In the second double header of the tournament, the first bout features Hino Ehikhamenor (13-3-0 7KOs) vs. Deon Elam (10-0-0 5KOs).

Hino indicates before the fight that Deon is a good friend, we’re close, but it’s not going to be about skill, the fight is gonna be about who has the will.  Who will dig deep in the fight?  This is my opportunity, I’m gonna let my hands fly.  Deon got his hands full.

Deon states that Hino throws one punch at a time, he’s really not that aggressive, as long as I stick to my game plan by backing him up with a steady jab, I should come away with the victory.

At the sound of the bell Hino came out strong doing whatever he wanted to do by controlling rounds 1 thru 3, beating Deon to the jab and winning every exchange.  Deon couldn’t get anything really going until the 4th round.  Deon went to war in the 4th round, letting his hands go with an urgency.  The same intense urgency he brought into the beginning of the 5th round, but “Hollywood” Hino was not having it.  Hino continued to land the harder shots and combinations to win him round 5 and the fight.  Hino makes his way to securing a spot in the semi-finals. I think if Deon fought the whole fight the way he fought in round 4, he makes the fight a lot closer.

Going into the 2nd fight of the Contender double header, Joell gets a second opportunity to come back and fight.  Due to Ryan’s exiting because of a bad cut, Joell had to shake off some rust coming back and didn’t look good in first sparring session back in the gym.  He then came back the following morning to have a much better training session where he looked a lot better preparing for his fight with Rico Hoye. With Joell Godfrey second shot he knew he had to make the best of it.

For Rico, boxing has given him a second chance at life after being locked up since he was 16 to 25 years of age, after an unfortunate circumstance where someone lost their life.

At the opening bell, both Joell and Rico came out at a fast pace, wasting no time with their jabs and letting their hands go. This was a fast pace fight where you just felt someone was going to run out of gas and get knocked out.  Rico Hoye controlled rounds 1 and 2, landing a lot more combinations where Joell was mostly landing his jab.

Round 3, Joell might have stole because he was getting comfortable and starting to land more with everything he threw.  Joell had a great come back round in round 3 and also stole round 4 as well.  It all came down to the 5th and final round.  At the start of the 5th, both fighters went straight after one another, but Rico backed Joell into the ropes and landed a sharp left hook. This left hook stunned Joell and him holding on to Rico Hoye.  Rico continued to land strong hard combinations which brought Joell to one knee. By the time the referee finished counting, the round had ended, sending Rico Hoye to the semi-finals to meet Hino. Joell loses again, but leaves feeling a lot better this time around and redeems himself.
Hino vs. Hoye, who wins this one and goes on to the finals?

This is where The Contender Tournament gets crazy as the friends of the Gold team pull for each other in their individual fights going towards the final and later have to pick each other apart. Nothing personal, just a part of boxing business!