28.02.07 – HBO travels to the Caribbean for hard-hitting championship action when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: MIGUEL COTTO VS. OKTAY URKAL AND EDISON MIRANDA VS. ALLAN GREEN is seen live from the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico on SATURDAY, MARCH 3 (9:45 p.m. ET/6:45 p.m. PT/8:45 p.m. CT). The HBO Sports team of Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Lennox Lewis will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, as well as closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino..
HBO2 playdates: March 4 (8:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m.) and 6 (11:30 p.m.). Times are ET/PT.
In the evening’s main event, welterweight boxing champion Miguel Cotto (28-0, 23 KOs) faces off against Oktay Urkal (38-3, 12 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round welterweight title fight. In his Dec. 2006 welterweight debut, former junior welterweight champion Cotto, of Caguas, Puerto Rico, bested top-rated, undefeated contender Carlos Quintana to capture his first welterweight title. One of the sport’s brightest rising stars, Cotto looks to electrify a hometown crowd in his first 147-pound title defense.
Standing in Cotto’s way is Oktay Urkal of Berlin, Germany. An 11-year veteran whose only losses came in title fights against Vivian Harris and former junior welterweight king Kostya Tszyu, Urkal intends to make the most of this title shot and finally earn the belt that has eluded him his entire career.
In the evening’s opening bout, Edison Miranda (27-1, 24 KOs), from Buenaventura, Colombia, takes on Allan Green (23-0, 16 KOs), from Tulsa, Okla., in a scheduled ten-round super middleweight fight. Returning to the ring for the first time since registering a spectacular first-round knockout in his December “HBO Boxing After Dark” debut, Miranda is widely considered the hardest-hitting fighter pound-for-pound in boxing. With 17 first-round knockouts already under his belt, he now wants to make his mark in the super middleweight division. Also seeking to make an impression at 168 pounds is opponent Allan Green. Like Miranda, the heavy-handed Green boasts significant power and will be aiming for his sixth knockout victim in his last seven fights.