Sugar Ray Leonard said that Sakio Bika (right) was the most entertaining of all The Contender participants. Photo / Emily Harney-FightWireImages.com

Not every reality-television show can replicate the success of American Idol, in terms of creating household names and changing the way an industry is run. The Contender was pitched as a show that would do that for boxing. We were told it would reinvent the pugilistic business model. Clearly, it didn’t.

But just because The Contender didn’t produce the sporting equivalent of Kelly Clarkson doesn’t mean the show didn’t have any impact. One look at this weekend’s fight schedule, with Miguel Espino challenging Kelly Pavlik for the middleweight championship of the world, demonstrates that. If nothing else, The Contender succeeded in producing opponents for the stars, guys who bring enough name recognition to the table to get opportunities on HBO, Showtime and pay-per-view. Occasionally, The Contender alums have succeeded in those spots. But even when they’ve failed, they’ve cashed healthy paychecks.

With Espino, who lost quietly to Peter Manfredo on Season One of The Contender, now fighting for the 160-pound division’s ultimate prize, this is as good a time as any to rank the best fighters to pass through the professionally lit halls of The Contender. The criteria is a bit tricky, as we’re balancing both ability and accomplishment and considering a mix of what was achieved during and after the show. Meanwhile, what the fighters accomplished prior to appearing on The Contender is somewhat de-emphasized since it doesn’t feel right to rank guys like Darnell Wilson, Mike Stewart or Michael Clark among the show’s best when their careers were winding down by the time they became reality-TV “stars.”

And for what it’s worth, Espino doesn’t make the cut either. If he shocks Pavlik this Saturday night, we’ll obviously reassess. But barring that major upset, here, counting down from 10 to 1, are our choices for the best of The Contender, with occasional insights sprinkled in from the three-time host of the show, Sugar Ray Leonard:

10. Cornelius Bundrage: “K-9” surprised observers by muscling his way to the semifinals in Season Two and went on to score a few impressive victories in his post-Contender career. The highlight was an upset over a fading Kassim Ouma, but he also decisioned the credible Chris Smith and knocked out 19-0 Russian prospect Zaurbek Baysangurov. On the downside, he got battered by Joel Julio and lost a dreadfully boring fight with Season Two winner Grady Brewer.

“I love K-9,” Leonard said. “I thought he was going to be a star. I was surprised that he wasn’t more competitive against Julio.” He’s been competitive against everyone else, though, and that sneaks Bundrage onto this list.

9. Peter Manfredo: “The Pride Of Providence,” runner-up in Season One, got his big shot after The Contender but came up smaller than the state he hails from and has hung around as a reliable New England ticketseller who beats the guys he’s supposed to beat and loses to the ones he’s supposed to lose to. The former category includes Scott Pemberton, Joey Spina and Donny McCrary. The latter is made up of Jeff Lacy, Sakio Bika and, most famously, Joe Calzaghe.

“When he fought Calzaghe, that was not Peter Manfredo,” Leonard said. “That fight, Peter reminded me of my first fight against Roberto Duran in a way. When I walked into the ring, I looked up and saw myself on that huge screen and I got a little overwhelmed. Peter did the same thing. He got overwhelmed by the moment. He didn’t fight. He froze.”

8. Ishe Smith: Leonard called Smith “maybe the most talented guy we ever had on the show.” Smith lost to eventual winner Sergio Mora by split decision in the Season One quarterfinals and has since specialized in coming up a point or two short against world-class prospects. Sechew Powell, Joel Julio and Danny Jacobs all decisioned “Sugar Shay” over 10 rounds, while Smith’s stand-out win was a decision over the unbeaten Pawel Wolak. Smith is your classic gatekeeper, a guy with skill and smarts who never gives anyone an easy night but doesn’t punch hard and just seems a little too content to lose competitively.

7. Sam Soliman: If we were ranking The Contender contestants on pure awkwardness, Soliman would be our Sugar Ray Robinson. And fortunately for the Aussie veteran, awkwardness can sometimes carry a fighter far. In fact, if Anthony Mundine had never been born, Soliman would be 26-2 over his last 28 fights. Instead, he’s 26-5 over his last 31. He reached the semifinals of Season Three before losing to Bika, he holds a 2002 win over Bika and an ’04 victory over Raymond Joval and he was competitive in ’05 against Winky Wright. It might be a stretch to apply the show’s title to him and call him a contender, but he’s at least been a fringe contender almost this entire decade.

6. Grady Brewer: By far the least likely Contender “champion” from the show’s four seasons, Brewer was a tough, tricky journeyman who hit the reality-TV jackpot, only to see his momentum squashed by a knee injury that put him on the sidelines for two years. He shocked prospect Anthony Thompson before going on The Contender, upset Stevie Forbes while on the show and beat Bundrage and undefeated Albert Onolunose since rehabbing his knee.

“The only guy who expected Grady to win was himself,” Leonard said. “I never met a guy who believed in himself so much like Grady Brewer. In his mind, he had the most beautiful boxing style. And he hustled. The guys he beat, they all fell prey to his hustle.”

5. Troy Ross: Easily the best fighter on the forgettable fourth season of The Contender, Ross has the amateur pedigree, the skills and the power to possibly end up recognized as the best fighter the show ever produced. But he still has a lot of proving to do in order to climb higher than No. 5.

The two best wins of his career both came on the reality show: a first-round stoppage of Felix Cora Jr. and a fourth-round TKO of Hino Ehikhamenor. Chances are that bigger wins are still to come, though the clock is ticking for the 34-year-old Canadian who is currently rated seventh at cruiserweight by THE RING.

4. Alfonso Gomez: The original Contender overachiever, the popular Gomez has consistently kept achieving since his semifinal run on the show. He beat cast mate Jesse Brinkley on the Season One finale broadcast. He knocked out Carson Jones. He won big in his HBO debut, sending Arturo Gatti into retirement. He outpointed Ben Tackie. And even after getting crushed by Miguel Cotto, he bounced back to beat the likes of Juan Manuel Buendia and Jesus Soto Karass.

“He looked very impressive against Gatti, but he couldn’t jump to the next level,” Leonard observed. “Against Cotto, he had no game plan.” Perhaps not, but a game plan wasn’t going to make a difference against an opponent of that caliber. Against every opponent he’s had a realistic chance of beating, Gomez has delivered, and he’s still a viable welterweight contender five years after his reality-TV run.

3. Steve Forbes: “Two Pounds” is an interesting case because he was a titleholder long before going on the show, and viewed in his absolute prime as a 130-pounder, he might have been more capable than any other Contender fighter. But with pre-Contender work de-emphasized for these rankings, Forbes – the Season Two runner-up – has to settle for a No. 3 ranking and a few handsome HBO paychecks.

Forbes will forever be the answer to the trivia question, “Who’s the last fighter Oscar De La Hoya defeated?” He also came up short against Andre Berto, defeated Francisco “Panchito” Bojado and lost a controversial decision to Demetrius Hopkins. It would be nice to see Forbes return to his natural weight class, junior welter, but the money keeps luring him seven or 10 pounds out of his comfort zone. Can you blame him for showing an interest in money? His name is Steve Forbes, after all.

2. Sakio Bika: When asked which Contender alum would be the first he’d pay to watch, Leonard immediately said Bika, the Season Three winner. “That’s entertainment. You know you’re guaranteed a fight with Sakio Bika,” said Sugar Ray. “Just big heart, big punch, and it was always a pleasure talking to Sakio. He wanted it so bad and he tried so hard. I’d like to see him in a big fight in Australia against Danny Green or Anthony Mundine.”

Bika has only lost twice in the past seven years, semi-competitive decisions to Joe Calzaghe and Lucian Bute. That’s about as respectable a pair of defeats as you can ask for. On the victorious side of his ledger are a third-round knockout of Manfredo and the instant-classic Contender finale brawl with Jaidon Codrington. Bika is a true contender, a tough out for anyone. And at just 30 years old, he still has several money-making years left in him.

1. Sergio Mora: Though there’s a little bit of “it depends what you like” involved in choosing between Bika and Mora for the top spot, how can you not go with the guy who convincingly won the debut season of the reality show and is the only Contender competitor to win an alphabet title after appearing on the program?

Not everyone loves “The Latin Snake.” He has a reputation for being somewhat full of himself, he took enormous heat for passing up a world middleweight championship fight against Jermain Taylor and even Leonard referred to Mora’s post-Contender career as “disappointing.” With just seven fights in the last 4¾ years, you can understand where Leonard is coming from. But the counterargument is that Mora (who has signed with Golden Boy Promotions) has gone 6-1 over those seven fights, including a win over Vernon Forrest that went a long way toward legitimizing The Contender after the fact.

If Espino defeats Pavlik this Saturday, he’ll do Mora one better. And no matter what, Espino has already done one thing Mora couldn’t: He signed on the dotted line for a shot at the undisputed middleweight title.

RASKIN’S RANTS

ÔÇó Congratulations to all of the 2010 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees, particularly former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler and Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler. Trampler actually played a small but important role in my development as a boxing writer, sending an angry fax chastising me (correctly) for failing to get both sides of the story in an article I wrote back in my first year on the job. I believe his words were something to the effect of me needing to go back and re-enroll in Journalism 101. The wording was slightly harsh, but a valuable lesson was learned and I became a more responsible journalist as a result.

ÔÇó If I can learn from being told I need to take Journalism 101, perhaps Joe Antonacci can improve after I tell him to enroll in Ring Announcing 101. Actually, Antonacci is usually perfectly competent. But he wasn’t this past weekend. At the end of the Paulie Malignaggi-Juan Diaz rematch, he bellowed, “and the new NABO junior welterweight champion of the world ÔǪ.” It’s bad enough that we have as many so-called “world” titles as we do. The last thing we need is to start recognizing regional titlists as “champions of the world” also.

ÔÇó In the unearned opportunity of a lifetime, Kevin Johnson showed more fire in the five seconds after the final bell rang than he showed all fight. The heavyweight division just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?

ÔÇó Here were Gus Johnson’s exact words about Timothy Bradley in the voiceover that opened Showtime’s broadcast Saturday night: “For years, they said he could become boxing’s next superstar.” Could anything be further from the truth? Bradley is a low-key, under-the-radar guy who’s proved himself slowly and steadily with no unwarranted hype. But, hey, why let the truth infringe upon an overly dramatic stream of bull?

ÔÇó Speaking of Bradley, with those six-pack abs of his, it might be time for him to change his nickname from “Desert Storm” to “The Situation.”

ÔÇó Say what you will about Lou DiBella, but he’s one promoter who cares about his fighters. He looks at Jermain Taylor and sees a human being with a wife and kids, not big flashing dollar signs. If such a thing as good karma really exists in this world, the best amateur prospect in America will walk into the DBE office tomorrow and ask Lou to be his promoter.

Eric Raskin can be reached at [email protected].