The Contender: Episode 5 Recap!

October 3, 2007

By Matt Richardson

Former world championship challenger Sakio Bika delivered a one-sided beating to Donny McCrary on Tuesday night's episode of "The Contender" on ESPN.

In a wide unanimous decision win Bika won by scores of 50-45 (twice) and 49-46. With the win Bika evened the score with the gold team; both teams are now 2-2.

After a sloppy opening round, both men began winging wild shots in the second. They also exchanged flush rights.

McCrary was hurt in the third when he waked into a right. A cut over McCrary's left eye was ruled to be caused by a punch.

McCrary rallied briefly in the fourth, rocking Bika with a right-left hook combination that had the gold team roaring. Bika returned fire though with hard rights of his own.

Going into the fifth and final round McCrary looked to be a spent force. Gold team head trainer Buddy McGirt warned him that he needed a knockout to win. While McCrary was game he couldn't score enough points to win the final frame.

With the "W" Bika moves on in the tournament while McCrary heads home.

In other "Contender" news, Wayne Johnsen was ranked third in the "power rankings" after his dominating decision win over Miguel Hernandez. Bika will likely move up to number two in the rankings because he beat his opponent by more combined points than Johnsen or Sam Soliman beat theirs.

As process of elimination the final fight of the first round will take place next week when former Peter Manfredo victim David Banks takes on Paul Smith.

The results of the first round of fights to date are as follows:
1. Jaidon Codrington TKO 2 Brian Vera
2. Sam Soliman W U 5 Max Alexander
3. Wayne Johnsen W U 5 Miguel Hernandez
4. Sakio Bika W U 5 Donny McCrary