Superstar Oscar De La Hoya, aka “The Golden Boy,” fights in front of a hometown crowd for the first time since 2000 when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: OSCAR DE LA HOYA VS. STEVE FORBES is seen live SATURDAY, MAY 3 (10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT) from The Home Depot Center in Carson, Cal., exclusively on HBO.. The HBO Sports team of Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Emanuel Steward will be ringside for the fight, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Headlining the inaugural boxing event at The Home Depot Center’s 27,000-seat soccer stadium, Los Angeles native Oscar De La Hoya (38-5, 30 KOs) will fight live on HBO’s flagship boxing series for the first time since 2001. Coming off the highest-grossing fight in history – his showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May 2007 – the six-division world champion will be making his 31st appearance on HBO, hoping to thrill the fans who have supported him since his amateur days in East Los Angeles. The fight also marks the return of Floyd Mayweather Sr. to the De La Hoya corner as head trainer.
Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs), from Las Vegas by way of Portland, Ore., is coming off a split-decision victory over the highly touted Francisco Bojado last October. A former super featherweight champion and finalist on “The Contender,” who has never been knocked down in 11 years as a professional, Forbes will be making his HBO debut under the tutelage of Mayweather Sr.’s brother, Jeff Mayweather.
The live showdown is preceded at 9:30 p.m. (ET)/6:30 p.m. (PT) by the half-hour special “Countdown to De La Hoya-Forbes.”
All WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING events are broadcast 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, Marc Payton.