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.
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.
Richard John Hatton is a British former professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2012, and has since worked as a boxing promoter and trainer. During his boxing career he held multiple world championships in the light-welterweight division, and one at welterweight. In 2005 he was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine, the Boxing Writers Association of America, and ESPN.
Floyd Joy Mayweather Sr. is an American boxing trainer and former professional boxer who competed from 1973 to 1990. Fighting at welterweight during the 1970s and 1980s, Mayweather Sr. was known for his defensive abilities and overall knowledge of boxing strategy. He is the father and former trainer of Floyd Mayweather Jr., and also father to Justin Mayweather, an American boxer residing in Las Vegas.
Juan Manuel Márquez Méndez is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2014. He is world champion in four weight classes, having held major titles from featherweight to Light welterweight, including the lineal championship at lightweight.
Paul Malignaggi is an Italian-American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2017 and has since worked as a boxing commentator and analyst, currently with BYB Extreme Bare Knuckle Fighting Series and ProBox TV alongside Mike Goldberg. He held the IBF junior welterweight title from 2007 to 2008, and the WBA (Regular) welterweight title from 2012 to 2013. Malignaggi competed once as a bare knuckle boxer in 2019 in a loss to MMA fighter Artem Lobov. Malignaggi was particularly known for his hand speed, boxing ability, athleticism, and durable chin.
Lovemore Ray Nḓou is a South African-Australian solicitor and former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2012. He held the IBF junior-welterweight title in 2007, and the IBO welterweight title from 2009 to 2010.
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.
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.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Ricky Hatton, billed as Undefeated, was a professional boxing match that took place on December 8, 2007, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, between reigning WBC and The Ring welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and reigning The Ring light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton.
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.
Ricky Hatton vs. Juan Lazcano, billed as Homecoming, was a boxing light welterweight fight between Ricky Hatton and challenger Juan Lazcano for the IBO and The Ring titles. It was held in Manchester, England at the City of Manchester Stadium in front of a record 55,000 fans. This was a record for a boxing event post world war II, until 2014 when Carl Froch faced George Groves, fight which sold 80,000 seats. The fight went the full 12 rounds and Hatton won by unanimous decision.
24/7 is an American reality television program that follows sportsmen, and sporting organizations, for a period of weeks in the lead-up to a major sporting event. The program premiered with episodes featuring pairs of boxers as they prepare for their upcoming boxing match against one another. More recently it has expanded to other sport rivalries as well with NASCAR and the rivalry leading up to the 2011 NHL Winter Classic. Each edition of the program is generally split up into three to four episodes, and is narrated by Liev Schreiber.
Adrien Jerome Broner is an American professional boxer. He held multiple world titles including the World Boxing Organization (WBO) super featherweight title from 2011 to 2012, the World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight title from 2012 to 2013, the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight (Regular) title in 2013, and the WBA (Regular) light welterweight title from 2015 to 2016.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Márquez III, was a professional boxing match contested on November 12, 2011, for the WBO welterweight championship.
Jan Zaveck vs. Andre Berto was a professional boxing match contested on September 3, 2011, for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) welterweight title. The fight took place at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, in Biloxi, Mississippi, United States on September 3, 2011 and was televised via HBO's Boxing After Dark.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley, was a welterweight title boxing match held on June 9, 2012, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. After 12 rounds, Bradley won a highly controversial split decision to take the WBO welterweight title.
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.
Manny Pacquiao competed in professional boxing from 1995 to 2021. Regarded by boxing historians as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time, Pacquiao is the only boxer in history to win twelve major world titles in eight different weight divisions. He is also the first boxer in history to win the lineal championship in five different weight divisions, as well as being the first boxer in history to win major world titles in four of the original eight weight divisions of boxing, also known as the "glamour divisions": flyweight, featherweight, lightweight and welterweight.
