HBO BOXING GOES COAST-TO-COAST FOR A TRIPLEHEADER OF
RING ACTION WHEN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: TAVORIS CLOUD VS.
BERNARD HOPKINS, KEITH THURMAN VS. JAN ZAVECK AND
CHRIS ARREOLA VS. BERMANE STIVERNE,
IS SEEN SATURDAY, MARCH 9
HBO will go coast-to-coast with fights from New York and California when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: TAVORIS CLOUD VS. BERNARD HOPKINS, KEITH THURMAN VS. JAN ZAVECK AND CHRIS ARREOLA VS. BERMANE STIVERNE is seen SATURDAY, MARCH 9 (9:30 p.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and The Hangar at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Cal., exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will call all the action, presented in HDTV and in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Other HBO playdates: March 10 (10:00 a.m.) and 11 (1:25 a.m.)
HBO2 playdates: March 10 (4:00 p.m.) 12 (11:30 p.m.)
In HBO╒s first presentation from the new Barclays Center, undefeated light heavyweight Tavoris Cloud (24-0, 19 KOs) from Tallahassee, Fla., puts his belt on the line against Philadelphia legend Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round title bout. Known for his hard-hitting punches, Cloud will be making his fifth title defense in this main event. Hopkins, considered to be a first ballot Hall-of-Famer, is looking to make history by becoming the oldest fighter to capture a world title at age 48 years old, having set the previous record at 46-years-old in May 2011 when he bested Jean Pascal in Montreal. Hopkins also set a record by successfully defending his middleweight title 20 times over a ten-year reign.
The opening bout comes from southern California and features an intriguing heavyweight matchup, as Chris Arreola (35-2, 30 KOs) of Escondido, Cal., goes up against Bermane Stiverne (22-1-1, 20 KOs) originally from La Plaine, Haiti and now living in Las Vegas, in a heavyweight title elimination bout. Arreola, 31, and Stiverne, 34, are vying for a shot at Vitali Klitschko╒s title, and both sport an impressive knockout-to-win ratio, with Arreola at 81% and Stiverne at 83%.
From Brooklyn, the middle bout features Keith Thurman (19-0, 18 KOs) of Clearwater, Fla. and Jan Zaveck (32-2, 18 KOs) of Ptuj, Slovenia, in a scheduled 12-round welterweight contest. Thurman has been fast-tracking through the welterweight and junior middleweight divisions, and this test against the veteran Zaveck will kick off the undefeated 24-year-old╒s 2013 quest for a world title shot.
The night of boxing programming continues with the season premiere of the half-hour boxing news program ╥The Fight Game with Jim Lampley,╙ which debuts live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn at 12:15 p.m., or immediately following the conclusion of WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING.
Kicking off the special evening of boxing programming, HBO Latino will air the junior lightweight title fight, HBO LATINO BOXING: JUAN CAROLS SALGADO VS. ARGENIS MENDEZ, debuting SATURDAY, MARCH 9 at 8:30 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT). Titleholder Juan Carlos Salgado (26-1-1, 16 KOs) of Mexico City and mandatory challenger Argenis Mendez (20-2, 10 KOs) of the Dominican Republic meet at The Hangar at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Cal. The pair met once before in Sept. 2011 with Salgado scoring the triumph. The fight is on the undercard of the Arreola-Stiverne bout and will enable boxing fans to enjoy a title fight exclusively on the HBO Latino service with commentary by the HBO Spanish-language announcers.
Other HBO Latino playdates: March 10 (9:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m.), 11 (12:25 a.m.) and 12 (7:00 p.m.)
All HBO boxing events are presented in HDTV. HBO viewers must have access to the HBO HDTV channel to watch HBO programming in high definition.
Follow HBO boxing news at hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/hboboxing and on Twitter at twitter.com/hboboxing.
The executive producer of WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is Rick Bernstein; producers Jon Crystal and Thomas Odelfelt; directors, Marc Payton and Frank Belmont.
¿ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.
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