LAS VEGAS -- It's tough to watch featherweight Brian Ramirez facing one of the biggest challenges of his 21 years. He clutches his hands together, takes deep breaths and closes his eyes, as if to steel himself for what he's about to do.
But it's not a championship fight he's facing. It's the taping of an endorsement for the sponsor of a new reality TV show, "Retador Azteca," or "Aztec Challenger," that pits teams of Latino boxers from both sides of the border against each other. Ramirez, a Mexican American from El Monte, sits at the edge of a leather-and-suede sofa donated by a furniture company and reads from a short pitch written on a sign board.
"My name is Brian," he says in Spanish as the camera rolls. "I want to tell you that every challenge means hard work and effort but, in the end, it has its rewards."
Soon he fumbles over a word. Cut! He tries again, but flubs another phrase. He buries his face in his hands and leans over to hide his head between his knees. Nearby, his fellow Aztec challengers aren't helping matters with their chatter.
"Listen, I'm going to kill you guys!" says producer Mapi Montero. "Be quiet or go back to your rooms."
Instant silence. The pugilists know better than to mess with Montero, a cross between director, trainer, den mother and Nurse Ratched. "To be on this reality show you have to be a real man," she tells me later. "It means you have to submit 24 hours a day, seven days a week to the command of a woman."
Montero, an independent producer born in Chile and based in New Jersey, adapted the show concept from the 2005 NBC series "The Contender," but with an international twist.
In "Retador Azteca," which airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on the Azteca America network (Channel 54), one team is composed of Latinos from the United States, either immigrants or their offspring from Mexico and Puerto Rico. Based in Las Vegas for the show, they were recruited from gymnasiums and boxing centers across the country. The other is made up of boxers from throughout Mexico and now based in Puebla. Each team is spending four months together, competing in a series of elimination matches during the series, hosted by the Mexican boxer Jorge "El Travieso" Arce.
Winners from each team will compete for the $50,000 grand prize in a final match to be held May 18 at Caesars Palace. Before the showdown, the contestants will meet at the border between Tijuana and San Diego to make a symbolic crossing on foot, representing the ties between immigrants and their country of origin. (Knockoffs of English-language reality TV are plentiful in Mexico.)
