Spotlighting two of the sport’s top pound-for-pound fighters, WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: GENNADY GOLOVKIN VS. DOMINIC WADE AND ROMAN GONZALEZ VS. MCWILLIAMS ARROYO will be seen SATURDAY, APRIL 23 at 10:00 p.m. ET & 7:00 p.m. PT from The Forum in Inglewood, Cal., exclusively on HBO. 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 24 (9:00 a.m.) and 26 (10:30 p.m.)
HBO2 playdate: April 25 (11:45 p.m.)
The doubleheader will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO and HBO On Demand.
In the main event, Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs), originally from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and now training at Big Bear, Cal., defends his middleweight crown against Dominic Wade (18-0, 12 KOs) from Largo, Md., in a scheduled 12-round contest.
Seeking his 16th consecutive successful title defense, the 33-year-old Golovkin is drawing closer to Bernard Hopkins’ record of 20 victorious middleweight title defenses. On a 21-bout knockout streak, Golovkin has compiled an extraordinary knockout-to-win ratio of 91%; no opponent has gone the distance with him since June 2008. Trained by the highly regarded Abel Sanchez, he will be making his tenth appearance on HBO since his auspicious Sept. 2012 debut.
Wade, 25, will draw on his youth and amateur experience, which includes being a four-time Junior Olympic Champion and a participant in the Olympic boxing trials for the 2008 Games. As a pro, he has amassed an impressive perfect record, with a knockout-to-win ratio of 67%, and now hopes to dethrone one of the sport’s most feared champions.
The opening bout features another undefeated fighter, as flyweight champ Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (44-0, 38 KOs) from Managua, Nicaragua takes on McWilliams Arroyo (16-2, 13 KOs) of Fajardo, Puerto Rico in a scheduled 12-round title fight.
Gonzalez, 28, has brought attention to the flyweight division with his speed and power, boasting a 86% knockout-to-win ratio. Arroyo, 30, with a 78% knockout-to-win ratio, was on a 12-bout win streak entering his previous title bout before suffering a controversial split-decision loss. Now this 2008 Olympian will have the opportunity to spring a massive surprise.
Golovkin and “Chocolatito” are sharing an HBO card for the third time. Both were impressive at the Forum in May 2015 and at New York’s Madison Square Garden the following October.
HBO’s Emmy-Award-winning series “24/7” debuts an all-new edition right after the fights with “24/7 CANELO/KHAN.”
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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, Jon Crystal; director, Johnathan Evans.
