Brad Horn
Jesse Brinkley has been on the outside looking in ever since season one of NBC's "The Contender," wrapped up in 2005.
The former reality TV star had his chance to get in the inner circle immediately following the show, but fell short and now is looking at one more chance to break through before he calls it a career.
Brinkley (34-5, 22 KOs), who is coming off a less-than stellar victory over Mike Paschall on Friday night at the Reno Events Center, has actively been looking for a title shot or a fight against another top super middleweight contender. He is ranked 13th in that division, but finds himself on the outside of a title shot again. The division's top fighters are locked into a six-man tournament through Showtime that will have them in fights through the summer of 2011, leaving the list of available fighters smaller than normal.
Regardless of the smaller stable of fighters, Tommy Lane of Let's Get It On Promotions said he wants one thing for Brinkley: "TV for the next fight on a major network against a name. If it's (Kelly) Pavlick or one of the super middleweight (contenders). Jesse will go anywhere to fight anyone, absolutely."
Brinkley did go anywhere after "The Contender." He fought former super middleweight title holder Robin Reid in 2007 in England where he lost an eight-round unanimous decision.
Pavlick is the biggest name out there. The World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization middleweight champ is one of the few names not in the tournament.
But if Friday night's win showed anything, it was that Brinkley didn't come into the fight as well prepared as he should have. He freely admitted the error and vowed to come into the next fight, against whomever that may be, in better shape.
"I'm going to be in camp a lot longer than four weeks though," Brinkley said. "No matter who we fight or what we do, I guarantee next time it will be a lot better outing. I'm not going to say this was a bad outing, because we got the win, but I'm going to say this was a half-assed outing by me.
"I know I can do a lot better than this and I know that. If we had a seven- or eight-week camp, we would have doubled our training and we would have gone five or six rounds. I'm going to start running, get my weight down. I'm going to start training now. My hands feel good, I'm going to let my face heal for about another week, then I'm going to start training for the next one."
There is an outside chance that Brinkley could become an alternate for the aforementioned tournament. Lane said there is high possibility that one of the six fighters pulls out and he would be happy to have Brinkley slide into that spot. But if that doesn't happen, odds are he will have one more fight before the end of the year. One name being floated around is Allan Green (28-1, 20 KOs), ranked 10th in the division.
"For the right amount of money, yeah I'll get in there with him," Brinkley said. "He's King Kong, but I'll fight King Kong for King Kong money."
The two fighters have one common opponent - Anthony Bonsante - who was also on season one of "The Contender." Brinkley defeated Bonsante twice, a fifth-round technical knockout and a five-round unanimous decision. Green scored a fifth-round technical knockout over Bonsante in their 2006 meeting.
Green was recently in talks to fight Pavlick, but according ESPN.com, they broke down because he was asking for too much money. Green has been unable to land a fight with the top contenders after being turned down by WBC champ Carl Froch earlier this month.
Another possibility is the super middleweight's No. 2 contender, Lucian Bute. But that would mean another southpaw for Brinkley and, this time, one with more power. Paschall (19-2) has only landed one knockout in his career while Bute (24-0) has earned 19.
"There's no hesitation because Bute holds all the marbles," Lane said. "If it's for a title, you've got to go for it. We had four weeks to get ready for a southpaw, but I don't think he looked bad against a southpaw. I think if he had more time, I don't think Bute is out of the question."
Lane added that he would send Brinkley to Bute's backyard in Montreal, but that he would like to see a big-time fight in Reno. The largest fight held in Reno outside of "The Fight of the Century," between Jack Johnson and James Jeffries in 1910 was held in 1985 when Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini lost to Livingstone Bramble in a World Boxing Association lightweight title bout.
"We'd love to bring that inside here," Lane said. "Northern Nevada loves Jesse and to bring a big name, big TV fight here is our ultimate goal. For Jesse, getting a big-money fight or a title is what's important to him."