HBO’s hit late-night boxing series features a junior welterweight title slugfest and a light heavyweight championship showdown when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: DEVON ALEXANDER VS. ANDRIY KOTELNIK AND TAVORIS CLOUD VS. GLEN JOHNSON is seen SATURDAY, AUG. 7 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT) & 9:00 p.m. CT from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team of Bob Papa and Max Kellerman will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Other HBO playdates: Aug. 8 (10:15 a.m.) and 9 (11:50 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: Aug. 8 (5:45 p.m.) and 10 (11:00 p.m.)
Undefeated junior welterweight champ Devon Alexander (20-0, 13 KOs) will do battle in front of hometown fans as defends his belts against Andriy Kotelnik (31-3, 13 KOs) of Hamburg, Germany, in a scheduled 12-round title bout. Just 23, Alexander is already a force in the 140-pound weight class: Making his HBO debut last March, he knocked out highly touted Colombian brawler Juan Urango in a title unification bout.
But Alexander hasn’t previously encountered a boxer as experienced and talented as Kotelnik, a former junior welterweight champ who successfully defended his title against the likes of powerhouse Marcos Maidana. Fighting as a lightweight, he also won a silver medal for Ukraine in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Though Kotelnik will be fighting in a hostile environment, he doesn’t shy away from challenges.
The opening bout is a 12-round slugfest featuring undefeated light heavyweight titleholder Tavoris Cloud (20-0,18 KOs) of Tallahassee, Fla. and former light heavyweight champ Glen Johnson (50-13-2, 34 KOs) of Miami, Fla. Appearing on HBO for the first time, Cloud is a power puncher who embodies the principle that the best defense is a good offense. In his title-winning victory over Clinton Woods, Cloud threw more 1,000 punches. Making his fifth HBO appearance, battle-tested veteran Johnson is once again in position to spring a big surprise.
The executive producer of HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is Rick Bernstein; producer, Jon Crystal; director, Mike Sheehan.
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