It’s a night for the record books when HBO Sports presents WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: GENNADY GOLOVKIN VS. VANES MARTIROSYAN AND CECILIA BRAEKHUS VS. KALI REIS, to be seen SATURDAY, MAY 5 at 11:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will call the action, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Undefeated middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, now living in Los Angeles, takes on Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) from Abovyan, Armenia, now living in Glendale, Calif., in a 12-round championship bout.
Golovkin, 36, looks to defend his middleweight title successfully for the 20th time, a feat previously accomplished only by surefire Hall-of-Famer Bernard Hopkins. Despite battling Canelo Alvarez to a stirring 12-round draw last September, Golovkin boasts an astonishing 87% knockout-to-win ratio. He’s coming off back-to-back efforts against Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs, perhaps the finest opponents in the 160-pound division.
Martirosyan, 31, is moving from the super welterweight division to 160 pounds to challenge “GGG,” and will be seeking a title for the third time.
Both fighters were amateur standouts who appeared in the 2004 Olympic Games, with Martirosyan representing his adopted nation of America, while Golovkin won a silver medal for Kazakhstan. Boasting a combined pro record of 73-3-2, 54 KOs, Golovkin and Martirosyan have a 94% winning percentage.
The opening bout marks the first women’s boxing match on HBO, with Cecilia Braekhus of Cartagena, Colombia (32-0, 9 KOs) meeting Kali Reis (13-6-1, 4 KOs) from Providence, RI, in a ten-round welterweight title bout. Braekhus seeks to extend her nine-year world championship reign in her 22nd consecutive title defense.
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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 HBO Sports is Rick Bernstein; producer, Dave Harmon; director, Johnathan Evans.
® WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.
