HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise continues to roll with an action-packed doubleheader when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: SAUL ALVAREZ VS. MATTHEW HATTON AND DANIEL PONCE DE LEON VS. ADRIEN BRONER is seen SATURDAY, MARCH 5 at 10:30 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT), from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Cal., exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team of Bob Papa, Max Kellerman and Roy Jones Jr. 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: March 6 (9:00 a.m.) and 7 (11:30 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: March 6 (4:45 p.m.) and 8 (11:00 p.m.)
The main event will feature two of 2010’s breakout phenoms going toe-to-toe, as rising Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (35-0-1, 26 KOs) takes on the UK’s Matthew Hatton (41-4-2, 16 KOs), younger brother of boxing great Ricky Hatton, in a scheduled 12-round super weltwerweight title fight. At the ripe age of 20, Alvarez has already proven he can hang with the big boys and is coming off a year that saw him win all five of his bouts, four via knockout.
Matthew Hatton will draw on a wealth of experience to counter Alvarez’ likely early-round aggressiveness. In 2010 he stepped out of his big brother’s shadow and made a name for himself, swiftly taking the European community boxing by storm. Now, Hatton’s grit and determination will be put to the test by his foe’s daunting speed and brash fearlessness with a title belt on the line.
Kicking off the night will be a thunderous junior lightweight bout featuring Daniel Ponce De Leon (41-2, 34 KOs), training out of Huntington Park, Cal., and undefeated 21-year-old Adrien Broner (19-0, 16 KOs) of Cincinnati. Ponce De Leon, 30, is a former junior featherweight champ who is moving up in weight, aiming to hand Broner his first loss. Renowned knockout specialist Broner, who has scored all but three of his 19 pro victories by KO, will look to take advantage of his superior speed to wear down the more battle-tested Ponce De Leon in this ten-round showdown.
The executive producer of HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is Rick Bernstein; producer, Jon Crystal; director, Mike Sheehan.