This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2016) |
Showtime Championship Boxing | |
---|---|
Genre | Sports, Boxing |
Created by | Showtime |
Country of origin | United States |
Production | |
Production companies | Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc. (1986–1988) Showtime Networks (1988–2023) |
Original release | |
Network | Showtime |
Release | March 10, 1986 – December 16, 2023 |
Related | |
ShoBox: The New Generation |
Showtime Championship Boxing was a television boxing program airing on Showtime. Debuting in March 1986, it is broadcast live on the first Saturday of every month. Showtime Championship Boxing, which is very similar to HBO World Championship Boxing , features Mauro Ranallo on play-by-play, Al Bernstein as the color analyst, Jimmy Lennon (Sr. and Jr.) as ring announcers, and Jim Gray as reporter.
A sister program, ShoBox: The New Generation, has occasionally aired on Friday nights, featuring fights between boxing prospects. Showtime has also occasionally aired limited cards on the CBS broadcast network since 2012, with the telecasts billed as a special edition of Showtime Championship Boxing rather than being billed as a CBS Sports broadcast.
With the announcement in October 2023 that Showtime Sports will be closing at the end of year, any future sports programming on the network will be branded under the CBS Sports branding. [1]
Brian Custer, currently serves as host of the program. The main broadcast team features Mauro Ranallo on blow-by-blow, Al Bernstein as chief color analyst and (when he is available) boxer Abner Mares as an analyst. Amir Khan, Austin Trout, and Daniel Jacobs have served as guest analysts. The third role was previously filled by Antonio Tarver, Ferdie Pacheco, Bobby Czyz, and Paulie Malignaggi among others. Veteran Jim Gray is chief reporter. Steve Farhood is the "unofficial scorer". Former top commentators include Steve Albert and Gus Johnson.
The New Generation features Barry Tompkins on blow-by-blow, and Raul Marquez and Brian Campbell as the expert analysts.
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).
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Larry Merchant is an American sportswriter, a longtime commentator for HBO sports presentations of HBO World Championship Boxing, Boxing After Dark and HBO pay-per-view telecasts, called "the greatest television boxing analyst of all time" by some, including ESPN Boxing analyst Dan Rafael.
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 from super featherweight to light middleweight. This includes the Ring magazine title in five 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.
A majority decision (MD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking. In a majority decision, two of the three judges agree on which fighter won the match, while the third judge indicates that neither fighter won.
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 super welterweight superfight that took place on May 5, 2007, at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada between six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya and undefeated four-division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. At the time, the bout was the most lucrative boxing match ever, with over $130 million in generated revenue.
Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson, billed as Lewis–Tyson: Is On, was a heavyweight professional boxing match that took place on June 8, 2002, at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tennessee. The defending unified WBC, IBF, IBO, and The Ring champion Lennox Lewis defeated former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson by knockout in the eighth round. Prior to the event, Lewis was awarded The Ring magazine heavyweight title, which had been vacant since the late 1980s and was last held by Tyson.
Jimmy Lennon Jr. is an American boxing ring announcer who is employed primarily by Showtime and Fox Sports as ring announcer for their Showtime Championship Boxing and Premier Boxing Champions, also by Bob Arum's Top Rank on ESPN events. Lennon was also employed by Fox Sports when it previously had rights to professional boxing and was the ring announcer for Don King Promotions' fights that aired on various networks. He is best known for his catchphrase, "It's showtime!" but the catchphrase is not spoken during Fox's fight coverage.
The Sugar Ray Robinson Award is given to the Boxing Writers Association of America's Fighter of the Year.
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.
Boxing in the 2010s includes notable events about boxing which occurred between 2010 and 2019. The decade saw high intensity action in the welterweight division. The match between veterans Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao broke PPV records. The broadcast of the fight in the Philippines was watched by nearly half the country's households. Mayweather retired at a record 50-0-0 while Pacquiao became the first eight division champion. The middleweight division saw immense action in the later years of the decade. After a draw in 2017, Canelo Alvarez ended Gennady Golovkin's long reign in 2018. The heavyweight division was dominated by Klitschko brothers before Wladimir's loss to Tyson Fury in 2015. Other talents that emerged were Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksander Usyk.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley, was a welterweight fight for the WBO welterweight championship. The bout was held on May 7, 2011, at MGM Grand, in Las Vegas. Pacquiao won by unanimous decision and retained his WBO welterweight championship. The fight was Manny Pacquiao's first PPV fight on Showtime boxing.
Mike Tyson vs. Buster Mathis Jr., billed as Presumption of Innocence, was a professional boxing match contested on December 16, 1995.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Canelo Álvarez, billed as The One, was a boxing light middleweight championship superfight. The bout was held on September 14, 2013, in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, on Showtime PPV. The bout took place at a 152-pound catchweight, two pounds below the light middleweight limit of 154 pounds. Mayweather received $41.5 million for this fight before taking into account pay-per-view sales.
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.
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.