Lennox Claudius Lewis is a boxing commentator and former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2003. He is a three-time world heavyweight champion, a two-time lineal champion, and held the undisputed championship. Holding dual British and Canadian citizenship, Lewis represented Canada as an amateur at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics; in the latter, he won a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division.
HBO World Championship Boxing is an American sports television series on premium television network HBO. It premiered on January 22, 1973, with a fight that saw George Foreman defeat Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica.
The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO).
Max Kellerman is an American sports television personality and boxing commentator. Until his departure from ESPN in June 2023, he was the host of This Just In with Max Kellerman and the co-host of Keyshawn, JWill and Max on ESPN Radio. He previously was a co-host of ESPN talk show First Take alongside Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim. He also previously was the co-host of the sports radio talk show Max & Marcellus, with Marcellus Wiley, on ESPNLA. Kellerman hosted the ESPN panel talk show Around the Horn from the show's incarnation in 2002 until 2004 and co-hosted the sports comedy talk show SportsNation, alongside Wiley and Michelle Beadle, from 2013 until 2016. He was also a studio commentator with Brian Kenny on Friday Night Fights and a color commentator for HBO World Championship Boxing and Boxing After Dark.
Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed between 1996 and 2017. He retired with an undefeated record and won 15 major world championships spanning five weight classes from super featherweight to light middleweight. This includes the Ring magazine title in three weight classes and the lineal championship in four weight classes. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal in the featherweight division at the 1996 Olympics, three U.S. Golden Gloves championships, and the U.S. national championship at featherweight.
Boxing After Dark is an HBO boxing program, premiered on February 3, 1996, that usually showed fights between well-known contenders, but usually not "championship" or "title" fights. Unlike its sister program, HBO World Championship Boxing, BAD featured fighters who were usually moving up from ESPN's Friday Night Fights or another basic cable boxing program. This was where fighters were given their start to become famous depending on how well they fare on BAD they might have a title fight on World Championship Boxing or could fall back
As in the 1980s, the 1990s in boxing's popularity focused on all divisions. When 1980s legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, as well as others retired, newer superstars filled the void: Pernell Whitaker, Julio César Chávez, in the early 1990s, Oscar De La Hoya, Félix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the mid to late 1990s.
The Ring magazine was established in 1922 and has named a notable boxing Event of the Year since 1993, based on the magazine's writers' criteria.
Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr., billed as The World Awaits, was a professional boxing match contested on May 5, 2007, for the WBC super welterweight championship.. At the time, the bout was the most lucrative boxing match ever, with over $130 million in generated revenue. Mayweather won by split decision over De La Hoya in 12 rounds.
Showtime Championship Boxing is a television boxing program that aired on Showtime. Debuting in March 1986, it was broadcast live on the first Saturday of every month. Showtime Championship Boxing, which was very similar to HBO World Championship Boxing, featured Mauro Ranallo on play-by-play, Al Bernstein as the color analyst, Jimmy Lennon as ring announcers, and Jim Gray as reporter.
Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Kenny Bayless is an American retired boxing referee from Nevada. He is best known for having refereed many of the sport's most well-known fights.
Gate receipts, or simply "gate", is the sum of money taken at a sporting venue for the sale of tickets.
The Sugar Ray Robinson Award is given to the Boxing Writers Association of America's Fighter of the Year.
Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, also billed as The Dream Match, was a professional boxing match contested on December 6, 2008. Pacquiao defeated De La Hoya via technical knockout when De La Hoya decided not to continue with the fight before the start of the ninth round. The card was a co-production of Bob Arum's Top Rank Boxing and De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions and was aired live on pay-per-view (PPV) on HBO PPV. The fight is notable for propelling Manny Pacquiao to full-blown superstar status in much of the western world, as Oscar De La Hoya symbolically "passed the torch", so to speak, to Pacquiao. This would mark De La Hoya’s final professional fight when he retired from boxing in 2009.
CBS has occasionally broadcast boxing events; its first broadcast occurred in 1948. The network's most recent broadcasts of the sport have fallen under Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions banner, and its most recent primetime broadcasts have been produced by sister pay television channel Showtime.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao, billed as the Fight of the Century or the Battle for Greatness, was a professional boxing match between undefeated five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. It took place on May 2, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. Mayweather Jr. won the contest by unanimous decision, with two judges scoring it 116–112 and the other 118–110. Although the fight was considered to be one of the most anticipated sporting events in history, it was largely considered a letdown by critics and audiences alike upon its broadcast.
Lennox Lewis vs. Hasim Rahman, billed as "Thunder in Africa", was a heavyweight professional boxing match contested between unified WBC, IBF, IBO, and lineal champion Lennox Lewis, and Hasim Rahman. The bout took place on 22 April 2001 in Brakpan, South Africa. Rahman, who was a 20–1 underdog, won by knockout in the fifth round. It was one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
Boxing on Fox refers to a series of boxing events produced by Fox Sports and televised by the Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox Sports 1.
