A talented international cast takes the spotlight in Las Vegas when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: TIMOTHY BRADLEY JR. VS. DIEGO CHAVES, MATT KOROBOV VS. ANDY LEE AND MAURICIO HERRERA VS. JOSE BENAVIDEZ is seen SATURDAY, DEC. 13 at 10:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan, 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: Dec. 14 (8:45 a.m.) and 15 (midnight)
HBO2 playdates: Dec. 14 (6:00 p.m.) and 16 (midnight)
Former junior welterweight and welterweight champ Timothy Bradley Jr. (31-1, 12 KOs) of Palm Springs, Cal. is one of the sport’s most recognizable fighters. Polished and resourceful. Following his first loss as a pro to superstar Manny Pacquiao last April, he’ll look to bounce back in this 12-round welterweight rumble.
Diego Chaves (23-2, 19 KOs) of Buenos Aires, Argentina is a power puncher who seeks to score a knockout in every fight. He was disqualified for excessive fouling in the ninth round of his last outing, a competitive ten-round bout with Brandon Rios in which one judge had him ahead.
Second on the bill, two gritty middleweights square off for a vacant 160-pound title belt, as Matt Korobov (24-0, 13 KOs) meets Andy Lee (33-2, 23 KOs) in a 12-round contest. Both Korobov, a 2008 Russian Olympic team member, and the London-born Lee, a veteran of the 2004 Irish Olympic team, are pursuing their first world championship, which could lead to huge fights in the competitive division.
The opening bout is a super lightweight showdown pitting Mauricio Herrera of Riverside, Cal. (21-4, 7 KOs) against Jose Benavidez (21-0, 15 KOs) of Phoenix in a 12-round tilt. Herrera has fought some of the most dangerous opponents in the division, including titlists Mike Alvarado, Danny Garcia and Ruslan Provodnikov. Benavidez had a sensational amateur career, winning the Golden Gloves national championship at age 16. Since turning pro at 17, he’s undefeated in 21 bouts.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING, HBO’s flagship boxing series, launched in Jan. 1973, and is the top-performing boxing series on TV.
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The executive producer of WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is Rick Bernstein; producer, Jon Crystal; director, Johnathan Evans.
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