HBO BOXING® RETURNS TO MADISON SQUARE GARDEN FOR
HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: GENNADY GOLOVKIN VS. CURTIS STEVENS
AND MIKE PEREZ VS. MAGOMED ABDUSALAMOV SATURDAY, NOV. 2
HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise presents a twin bill of hard-hitting action highlighted by a red-hot middleweight title showdown when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: GENNADY GOLOVKIN VS. CURTIS STEVENS AND MIKE PEREZ VS. MAGOMED ABDUSALAMOV is seen SATURDAY, NOV. 2 at 10:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the Theater at Madison Square Garden, exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Other HBO playdates: Nov. 3 (9:15 a.m.) and 4 (11:15 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: Nov. 3 (4:45 p.m.) and 5 (11:45 p.m.)
The main feature pits undefeated Kazakhstan sensation Gennady Golovkin (27-0, 24 KOs) against rising star Curtis Stevens (25-3, 18 KOs) of Brooklyn in a scheduled 12-round middleweight title bout. With an 89% knockout rate – the highest percentage of any world champion today – and knockouts of his last 14 opponents, Golovkin, 31, has established himself as one of the most electrifying fighters in the sport. He scored a spectacular victory on HBO in June when he KO’d Matthew Macklin in the third round. This will be the fourth fight on American soil for the fan-friendly, 160-pound titleholder, who trains at Big Bear in California.
Like Mike Tyson and Riddick Bowe before him, Curtis Stevens (25-3, 18 KOs) is a product of the hardscrabble neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Although he’s been a pro for nine years, the 28-year-old’s career has surged the past two years and he’s scored impressive first-round KO victories in three of his last four fights.
The opening bout is a ten-round heavyweight slugfest, as Cuban native Mike Perez (19-0, 12 KOs) meets Russia’s Magomed Abdusalamov (18-0, 18 KOs). Perez, 27, and Abdusalamov, 32, both seek to preserve an undefeated record and display their abilities on a national stage.
“Face Off With Max Kellerman: Pacquiao/Rios,” featuring the two world-class prizefighters squaring off with Kellerman as moderator, debuts immediately following the boxing action (midnight-12:15 a.m.).
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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.
The executive producer is Rick Bernstein; producer, Thomas Odelfelt; director, Doug Getts.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
