After taking the last few weeks off HBO Boxing returns with a new World Championship Boxing card in Montreal tonight. The pay network will air a fight that was originally scheduled in May of 2013 between light heavyweights Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute.
That will be preceded by a heavyweight bout between Mike Perez and Carlos Takam.
The venerable Jim Lampley will lead the announcing team at the Bell Centre.
Here’s the HBO preview.
HBO BOXING® JOURNEYS TO MONTREAL FOR A COMPELLING SHOWDOWN
WHEN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING®: JEAN PASCAL VS. LUCIAN BUTE AND MIKE PEREZ VS. CARLOS TAKAM
IS SEEN SATURDAY, JAN. 18American fight fans will see the biggest bout in Canadian boxing history when the action-packed doubleheader WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: JEAN PASCAL VS. LUCIAN BUTE AND MIKE PEREZ VS. CARLOS TAKAM is presented SATURDAY, JAN. 18 at 10:15 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the Bell Centre in Montreal, exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will call all the action, presented in HDTV and in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Other HBO playdates: Jan. 19 (8:30 a.m.) and 21 (midnight)
HBO2 playdates: Jan. 19 (4:00 p.m.) and 20 (11:00 p.m.)
In the historic main event, the country’s top rivals, Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 KOs) and Lucian Bute (31-1-0, 24 KOs), meet in a 12-round, 175-pound spectacle originally slated for May 2013. The 31-year-old Pascal has never backed down from a challenge, confronting American stars Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson with supreme confidence. Bute, 33, has displayed flashes of brilliance as a super middleweight, and will now test his power in the light heavyweight division.
The evening opens with a battle of highly touted heavyweights, as Mike Perez (20-0, 12 KOs) of Cork, Ireland, takes on Carlos Takam (29-1, 23 KOs) of Noisy-le-Grand, Seine-Saint-Denis, France in a scheduled ten-round bout. Coming off a November win, Perez, 28, seeks to preserve his undefeated record and power-punch his way to a shot at a heavyweight crown. Boasting an impressive 11-fight win streak, including eight by knockout, Takam is making his HBO and Canadian debuts. He is sharp having scored a third round KO win over Jakov Gospic on Dec. 20.
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.
Follow HBO boxing news at hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/hboboxing and on Twitter at twitter.com/hboboxing. Use the Hashtag #PascalBute to join the conversation on Twitter.
®WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.
There you have it.
