The world’s premier heavyweight returns to New York for a title showdown when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO VS. BRYANT JENNINGS AND SADAM ALI VS. FRANCISCO SANTANA is seen SATURDAY, APRIL 25 at 10:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The HBO Sports team will call all the action, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Other HBO playdates: April 26 (10:00 a.m.) and 28 (11:30 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: April 26 (3:30 p.m.) and 27 (11:30 p.m.)
Boasting a collection of title belts, Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 54 KOs) from Kiev, Ukraine, and now residing in Miami, takes on Philadelphia’s undefeated Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round championship contest. Long dominating the heavyweight division, three-time champ Klitschko won his first title belt in March 2001. He has a sterling championship bout record of 24-2 and is on a 21-fight victory streak since his loss to Lamon Brewster in April 2004. At one point he and his now-retired brother, Vitali, concurrently held every major heavyweight championship belt between them.
The upcoming bout marks Wladimir’s first fight in the U.S. since 2008 and his 20th HBO bout; he first appeared on the network in July 2000 when he handled Monte Barrett with a seventh-round TKO.
Training in Oakland, Cal., Jennings hopes to use his power and ring agility to spring one of the biggest surprises in recent heavyweight history. His previous two opponents were undefeated prior to facing off against Jennings, while the combined records of his last four opponents was 82-4 before they encountered him.
The opening bout is a scheduled ten-round welterweight contest between Brooklyn’s Sadam Ali (21-0, 13 KOs) and Francisco Santana (22-3-1, 11 KOs) of Santa Barbara, Cal. Ali made his HBO debut last November with a dominating knockout performance against Luis Carlos Abregu. Now he’ll defend his undefeated record against Santana, who’s making his HBO debut.
Immediately following the live boxing, HBO Sports will present the premiere of MAWEATHER/PACQUIAO: THE LEGENDS SPEAK. The half-hour special includes interviews with the five fighters who have faced both Pacquiao and Mayweather in the ring. De La Hoya, Marquez, Cotto, Mosley and Hatton.
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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 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is Rick Bernstein; producer, Dave Harmon; director, Johnathan Evans.
® WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.
