Rudy Cisneros, winner of eight of his nine bouts since turning pro two years ago, has signed a boxing contract equivalent to a farmer agreeing not to plant crops for one season.
Cisneros, 25, a former Chicago Golden Gloves champion and Olympic hopeful, is one of 16 fighters chosen to appear on Season 2 of the boxing reality series “The Contender.” It premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN.
The bouts and background stories of all the boxers, who had to make a 149-pound weight limit, were taped in January and February. They will be telecast as hourlong shows for a dozen Tuesdays, eliminating fighters week by week and leading to a live two-hour finale Sept. 26. The winner of the final bout gets $500,000.
Before the taping began, the 16 participants signed contracts agreeing not to fight elsewhere or discuss outcomes of any of their “Contender” bouts until after the finale.
“It was a great experience,” Cisneros said. “I’m still enjoying it. My friends all know I was on the show. When I go out with them, I joke that we’ve got to be careful because I don’t want the `paparazzi’ getting any bad photos of me. Nobody can even throw any trash away carelessly when they’re with me.”
Cisneros conceded that the nearly constant presence of cameras during the taping was disconcerting, especially when he wanted time alone with his family and with girlfriend Jacqueline Gramer when they came to visit.
“I’m a patient and polite guy, and I knew we’d signed contracts agreeing to those cameras being there,” he said. “Some guys didn’t take the cameras in their faces as well as others. We all came to realize how many distractions there are.
“At the beginning when they were getting to know us, we were all thinking, `When are we going to a gym to train?'”
Veterans of the show’s first season offered some advice.
“They told us that while it may seem like a long season, it will be worth it in every way,” Cisneros said. “It will help you as a boxer in and out of the ring, and every doubt you have will be erased.
“Right now I believe that.”
Cisneros had previously tried out for “The Next Great Champ,” a similar reality series backed by Oscar De La Hoya. It failed miserably on Fox.
“The Contender” fared somewhat better on NBC, but not well enough to merit a second season. Its weekly audience of about 6 million was a good number for boxing, however, and good enough to convince ESPN to pick it up, pare down the expenses (last year’s winner received $1 million) and try it again.
Cisneros is known around his Garfield Park training base as “El Cacchoro” (Little Cub) for his lifelong allegiance to the Cubs. That allegiance created a minor problem for the show’s producers.
“I’m a huge Cubs fan, and I wanted to wear my Cubs stuff all the time,” he said. “They had concerns about it being too commercial. I had to keep pressing for it and waiting for them to clear it.
“I got my wish, but it took a while.”
While he takes a seven-month hiatus from boxing as required by his “Contender” contract, Cisneros has resumed taking classes at ITT Technical Institute in Mt. Prospect working toward a degree in computer-aided drafting.
“`The Contender’ is paying for my education,” he said.
Not bad for a guy who almost passed on the auditions.
“The night before, I fought in Santa Ynez, Calif. (beating Raul Cazares on Oct. 21),” he said. “We flew back to Chicago late and my girlfriend convinced me to get up and go and try out the next morning.”
Rematch, anyone?
Fernando Vargas complained long and loud when he could not get a rematch against De La Hoya, who knocked him out in 2002. Now he has found a more willing Shane Mosley, who will give Vargas a chance Saturday night to avenge Mosley’s technical knockout victory Feb. 25 in a bout stopped because of gross swelling that closed Vargas’ left eye.
But it’s not Vargas’ nature to be thankful. “I was winning the fight with one eye,” he claimed, although Mosley was ahead on the judges’ scorecards. Vargas said Mosley is taking the rematch “for the money,” while “I’m doing it for vindication.”
Mosley replied that Vargas “is being propped up by false pride. . . . If he thinks he’s the better fighter, he’s in some deep stuff.”
Mosley left the rest of his response to promoter Richard Schaefer, who said, “Last time Shane shut Vargas’ eye. This time he will shut his mouth.” Mosley-Vargas II will be telecast from Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena at 8 p.m. Saturday (HBO Pay-Per-View, $49.95.)
In a rematch of another sort, Tim Sylvia retained his Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title by outpointing Chicagoan Andrei Arlovski last Saturday in the rubber match of a three-fight series. The first two mixed martial arts matches ended in first-round knockouts.
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mhirsley@tribune.com
