More on the Contender and March Madness

More on the Contender and March Madness

Well, not long after I write a bigass piece on how good The Contender is, good ol' Bill Simmons writes almost the same thing. I think maybe he took the link to this Blog that I sent him in my Intern Contest application and has it bookmarked now to steal material….

Okay, well, probably not. And I still like him enough to link to the article so you can compare. But yes, I'm still a little bitter that he chose a bunch of Boston fans and girls claiming to be "model material" as his Intern Contest finalists.

Check this out for example:

Steve St. Ides wrote:
"But the best part, by far, is the fight itself. Obviously, this isn't live. So they can do all kinds of crazy dramatic edits, slow motion, cuts to the crowd, sound effects, and whatnot. And it really works. It's kind of like watching Rocky but it's real. And, well, not quite as bloody. But it's pretty cool when you see one boxer land a vicious uppercut, and then the camera cuts away and shows the reaction of Stallone and Ray sitting there, or the guy's wife, or his mom, or his teammates. Complete with in between round sound bites from Sly saying things like "Yo, he won that round. Easy." or one of the boxer's teammates saying "Man, he needs to throw the jab more!" or one of their father's shouting at them in spanish and demonstrating how he should be holding his hands up on defense."

Bill Simmons wrote:
"In case you haven't seen the show, they edit the matches into a few action-packed minutes – giving them leeway to add a pounding soundtrack, cuts to the crowd, reactions of family members and slow-motion punches – so it plays like a scene from a boxing movie. Sure, it's impossible to get a feel for the ebb and flow of the fight. But I'm not sure you need it. With the way they edit these matches, they could turn the Ruiz-Holyfield trilogy into a replica of the three Gatti-Ward fights."

Hrmmm… suspicious? Probably not, but whatever, this should just further convince you to watch the damn show. :P

In other sports news, the NCAA Tournament resumes tonight. Let's hope the games this weekend are better than the bunch last weekend. Here's my "second chance" picks for the Final Four: Illinois over Louisville, UNC over Utah, with UNC beating Illiniois to win it all. Word.