The Contender's Location: An Update

I know some of y'all were interested in finding out exactly where The Contender gym is located, the place that is the center of the action on NBC's boxing reality show, The Contender.

I had a fairly good idea of the location, but hearing an April broadcast of radio's Love Line provided further clues.

The guest on the show was boxer Ishe Smith, who defeated the trash talking "Baby Face" Ahmed only to lose to eventual winner and $1 million prize-taker Sergio "The Latin Snake" Mora. Ishe stated that the gym is located on Del Mar. Other indications (and establishing shots from the program) placed the gym on or near Raymond, so we can now be sure that the gym is located four or five blocks south of Old Town.

This information, of course, may only interest Pasadena and Los Angeles folk and/or Contender freaks and groupies. In any event, The Contender gym is about a 20-minute walk away from my pad (the Southern Fortress) so there's absolutely no reason for me not to check it out at some point.

Ishe turned out to be a surprisingly good addition to the Love Line broadcast. While he was at times taciturn on The Contender (which may be due to the fact that the rest of the house clearly placed a bull's eye on the talented boxer's back) or seen praying with Brent "The Disciple" Cooper, Ishe was fun and loose whilst bantering with Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky.

Dr. Drew is also said to live in the Pasadena area. Maybe I'll bump into him in the supermarket sometime.

True story: I bumped into the dude who plays Bubbles (the junkie / informant guy, played by Andre Royo) on The Wire (one of my absolute favorite shows) a few weeks ago at a supermarket on Lake St. Friendly guy, adorable daughter. He seemed enthusiastic about my offer to interview him, but I've yet to hear back from him as yet.

Maybe he thought I was a freak or a groupie.