HBO BOXING® PRESENTS A SPLIT-SITE TRIPLEHEADER OF ALL-ACTION FIGHTS WHEN HBO BOXING AFTER DARK®: BRANDON RIOS VS. DIEGO CHAVES, SERGEY KOVALEV VS. BLAKE CAPARELLO AND JESSIE VARGAS VS. ANTON NOVIKOV IS SEEN SATURDAY, AUG. 2

HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise returns for an all-action tripleheader of fights from two sites when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: BRANDON RIOS VS. DIEGO CHAVES, SERGEY KOVALEV VS. BLAKE CAPARELLO AND JESSIE VARGAS VS. ANTON NOVIKOV is seen SATURDAY, AUG. 2 at 9:45 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, exclusively on HBO. HBO Sports teams will be ringside at both events, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.

Other HBO playdates: Aug. 3 (8:00 a.m.) and 5 (1:00 a.m.)

HBO2 playdates: Aug. 3 (3:30 p.m.) and 4 (11:00 p.m.)

Presented from Las Vegas, the main event of the evening marks the 2014 debut of fan-favorite Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 22 KOs) of Oxnard, Cal. The former 135-pound champ has participated in a handful of classic throwback brawls in his young career and is determined to rebound after tough losses to Mike Alvarado and Manny Pacquiao last year. His foe in the ten-round welterweight fight is Diego Chaves (23-1, 19 KOs) of Buenos Aires, making his Las Vegas debut in just his second fight outside Argentina.

The middle bout is a 12-round world title fight at 175 pounds, as Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (24-0-1, 22 KOs) defends his light heavyweight crown against Australian Blake Caparello (19-0-1, 6 KOs) in Atlantic City. Surging to the top of the 175-pound division, the undefeated slugger is making his fourth appearance on HBO in 13 months, after delivering spectacular knockouts in his three previous bouts on the network. Kovalev, who now calls Ft. Lauderdale home, will face a formidable challenger in the undefeated Caparello.

The evening’s opening bout comes from Las Vegas, with undefeated hometown darling Jessie Vargas (24-0, 9 KOs) facing Anton Novikov (29-0, 10 KOs) of Kopeysk, Russia, in a super lightweight contest scheduled for 12 rounds. Vargas has displayed a willingness to meet any competitor, and will encounter a crafty southpaw in Novikov, his third undefeated opponent in his last four fights.

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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 of HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is Rick Bernstein; producers, Dave Harmon and Jon Crystal; director, Jonathan Evans.