HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise heads to the American Airlines Center in Dallas for the first time to present an all-action slugfest highlighted by a superb featherweight title showdown when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: MIKEY GARCIA VS. JUAN MANUEL LOPEZ AND TERENCE CRAWFORD VS. ALEJANDRO SANABRIA is seen SATURDAY, JUNE 15 at 10:45 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT), 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: June 16 (9:00 a.m.) and 17 (midnight)
HBO2 playdate: June 18 (midnight)
The main event pits Mikey Garcia (31-0, 26 KOs) of Oxnard, Cal. against Juan Manuel Lopez (33-2, 30 KOs) from Caguas, Puerto Rico in a scheduled 12-round featherweight title bout. Garcia comes from a talented boxing family: The 25-year-old is trained by his father, Eduardo, and co-managed and trained by his brother, Robert, the BWAA 2012 Trainer of the Year. Garcia has been on a roll, scoring KO victories in 14 of his last 16 fights, including an impressive performance in January. Having won world titles at 122 and 126 pounds, “Juanma” Lopez is sure to make this an intriguing showdown as he seeks to reestablish his prominence in the lighter weight divisions.
In the co-feature bout, rising undefeated lightweight contender Terence Crawford (20-0, 15 KOs) of Omaha, Neb. meets the more experienced Alejandro Sanabria (34-1-1, 25 KOs) of Mexico City in a ten-round, 135-pound showdown. Crawford gained notoriety in March when he took a bout against the dangerous Breidis Prescott on short notice and dominated the fight. Making his U.S. debut, Sanabria is riding a ten-bout winning streak.
Opening the evening of primetime programming on HBO will be the network debut of the blockbuster theatrical “The Dark Knight Rises” at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT).
Immediately following the doubleheader, HBO will present an encore of “2 Days: Gennady Golovkin” from the acclaimed “2 Days” feature series.
Follow HBO boxing news at hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/hboboxing and on Twitter at twitter.com/hboboxing.
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; producer, Dave Harmon; director, Doug Getts.
HBO BOXING AFTER DARK®:
GENNADY GOLOVKIN VS. MATTHEW MACKLIN, THOMAS OOSTHUIZEN VS.
BRANDON GONZALES AND WILLIE NELSON VS. LUCIANO CUELLO
FEATURES A TRIO OF SIZZLING SUMMER SHOWDOWNS SATURDAY, JUNE 29
HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise presents a triple dose of hard-hitting action highlighted by a red-hot middleweight title showdown when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: GENNADY GOLOVKIN VS. MATTHEW MACKLIN, THOMAS OOSTHUIZEN VS. BRANDON GONZALES AND WILLIE NELSON VS. LUCINAO CUELLO is seen SATURDAY, JUNE 29 at 9:45 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Ct., 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: June 30 (9:45 a.m.) and July 1 (midnight)
HBO2 playdates: June 30 (3:30 p.m.) and July 2 (11:35 p.m.)
The main event pits Kazakhstan’s undefeated Gennady Golovkin (26-0, 23 KOs) against Matthew Macklin (29-4, 20 KOs) of Birmingham, UK, in a scheduled 12-round middleweight title bout. One of the sport’s fastest-rising stars and an emerging force at 160 pounds, Golovkin, 31, has knocked out his last 13 opponents. In his spectacular HBO debut last September, he scored three knockdowns en route to a fifth-round knockout of Grzegorz Proksa. This will be the third fight on American soil for the fan-friendly Golovkin. Macklin, also 31, scored a first-round knockout of Joachim Alcine last September, and in March 2012 mounted a valiant effort against pound-for-pound ace Sergio Martinez, knocking him down once and going toe-to-toe with the middleweight champ before running out of steam in the 11th round.
In the middle bout, South Africa’s Thomas Oosthuizen (21-0-1, 13 KOs) meets Brandon Gonzales (17-0, 10 KOs) of Sacramento, Cal. in a ten-round battle of undefeated talents. Making his HBO debut, the 25-year-old Oosthuizen is closing in on a title shot in the 168-pound division. The 29-year-old Gonzales will seek to demonstrate that his stellar amateur background has prepared him for this super middleweight clash.
Leading off the telecast will be a ten-round junior middleweight fight between Cleveland’s Willie Nelson (20-1-1, 12 KOs) and Luciano Cuello (32-2, 16 KOs) of Buenos Aires. Nelson, 25, enjoyed a prolific amateur career before turning pro in 2005. Cuello, 28, turned pro in 2004 and has challenged the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.
Immediately following the boxing action, HBO will present a new edition of “The Fight Game with Jim Lampley” (12:30 a.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT).
