The Next Great Champ, Episode 1: The Great White Blabbermouth

I must admit, I've been curious to see how the world of boxing would carry over to reality television. I'm sure you are too, so let's get right to it!

Oscar De La Hoya gives us a brief introduction to the show, and we meet some of the fighters. You can find out more about ALL the fighters in our preview article. On a random rooftop in Los Angeles, Oscar welcomes the twelve boxers and their confidants. They're fighting for a contract, over three quarters of a million dollars, and a shot at a world title fight. In the intro, they mention the prize as a WBO title fight - and guess who is the WBO Middleweight champ? None other than the Golden Boy himself!

The training begins - right now! Oscar leads them on a jog through the streets of LA. As they run, boxers introduce themselves in voiceover. Jimmy Mince's brother Chuck died in the ring. Rene Armijo, Jr. would box with his father as a kid, not play catch. He wants to hurt people in the ring.

They run into the gym and meet trainers Tommy Brooks and Lou Duva. Fred Bachmann is mesmerized. Rene says it's like learning from a Jedi Master. More speechifying from Oscar: they're going to train like champions in order to become champions. Each week, Oscar, Tommy, and Lou will rank the fighters on a tote board hanging in the gym. The lowest ranked boxer must challenge one of the top three in an elimination bout, while the top three will fight for $25,000. In other words, if the lowest-ranked boxer wins, his prize is to stay another week. If the boxer he challenges wins, he wins $25 grand. But whoever loses DOES go home.

Lou Duva, the grumpy old man of boxing, cuts in. He's trained a lot of champs, and chased away a lot of imposters. He's wondering which one each of the twelve is. They start training again immediately.

We meet David Pareja, who argues that no one ever gives the white guy a chance because there aren't any good white fighters. You don't have to remember this, because he'll tell you again roughly seven hundred and forty three times over the course of the episode tonight. It's incredibly offensive and cocky, and it makes him out to be a jerk right from the start. He also thinks the others will be afraid of him.

RC Reyes loves his brother and his mother. He fights for two entities - himself and his family. Tommy tells us that he can be the best trainer in the world, but if the boxer is no good, there's nothing he can do. That sounds like foreshadowing to me. Indeed, he tells RC that he's got to do more than just throw punches, he's got to put him together. They're going to keep doing it until they do it right!

With that, it's time for the first challenge. Every week, the winner of the challenge will automatically be ranked #1 and receive $10,000. For the rest of them, the competition will also affect the overall rankings.

In this competition, the boxers will hang upside down and do inverted situps. Three buttons are hanging with them at about shin level, and are connected to lights. The boxers, in three groups of four, have to punch all three buttons and then hit a reset button located near their head. The person who can do this the most times in 90 seconds is the winner.

RC is really struggling as his brother Arturo says that they don't normally do this type of exercise. Otis Griffin leads the first group with 18. In the second group, David Pareja has a great rhythm going and becomes the new leader with 27. Otis is in the background looking less than happy.

In the third group, James Mince roars into the lead with 30, but Tommy announces that twenty of his sets were "assisted" and do not count. He was placing his right hand behind his knee and pulling himself up so his final score is ten. Rene Armijo comments that the fact that he cheated showed a lot about his character. Paul Scianna's 27 puts him into a tie with Pareja for the lead.

They have a face-off, which Pareja wins, 25 to 24. His wife, PJ, says she expected a lot of congratulations but only got stares. She thinks that they were hoping that their fighter would win. You're new here, aren't you? Sheesh. Mike Vallejo's fiancé Glenda is upset that PJ kept yelling about the money.

The boxers finally enter the loft. The living room looks fine, but the bedrooms remind some of them of the military - or prison. Mike tells us that he and RC grew up together, so the two of them have a backup. David doesn't like the communal showers (is the white guy defense applicable here?), or that there's no hot tub or TV. Bitch, bitch, bitch. You just won $10,000 and are getting the chance of a lifetime, shut the hell up already.

Lou, Tommy, and Oscar go to the special double-secret war room. Tommy thinks Mince should automatically be ranked last because he "perpetrated a fraud" in the challenge. Lou disagrees, thinking that he'll be one to beat. You know, by putting him last you'll make him prove himself - which works for both arguments. Anyway, Oscar points out the RC didn't do well in the challenge and Tommy says he's got issues. Oscar asks if he's got the mental game to make it. Tommy and Lou think Otis is the total package. I agree - I think I sold Otis short in my preview. They comment on a few others, but we haven't seen enough of them to put the comments in any sort of context.