HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise travels to Canada for an all-action Thanksgiving weekend doubleheader of light heavyweight powerhouses with an awesome, hard-hitting holiday special of HBO Boxing After Dark: Adonis Stevenson vs. Tony Bellew, and Sergey Kovalev vs. Ismayl Sillakh this Saturday at 10:15 p.m. from the Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City.
Also featured will be a replay of the Pacquiao vs. Rios battle from last weekend, an extra reason to be thankful over the holiday.
In the 12-round main event, light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (22-1, 19 KOs) of Quebec defends his title on his home turf against the UK’s Tony Bellew (20-1, 12 KOs). Stevenson, 36, dismantled former champion Chad Dawson with a first-round knockout in June to win his first world championship, and successfully defended his title in September, stopping another top veteran, Tavoris Cloud, at the end of the seventh round. Making his third appearance on HBO in five months, he hopes to continue his meteoric rise in the 175-pound division.
In his HBO debut, Bellew will look to use his significant height and reach advantages to halt Stevenson. Taking place on his 31st birthday, the bout marks Bellew’s first fight outside the UK and his first shot at a world championship.
The co-feature bout pits Russia’s Sergey Kovalev (22-0-1, 20 KOs) against Ukraine’s Ismayl Sillakh (21-1, 17 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round light heavyweight title fight. Making his second HBO appearance this year, the undefeated Kovalev, 30, is coming off the biggest win of his career, a masterful fourth-round technical knockout of Nathan Cleverly that brought him his 175-pound title. He is one the sport’s fastest rising stars and on everybody’s “must see” list.
Sillakh, 28, has an extensive amateur resume and near-perfect professional record. A resident of Simi Valley, Cal., he will be fighting in his sixth country as a pro and making his HBO debut.
Leading off the telecast will be the HBO replay of the hard-hitting welterweight fight between Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios that took place on Nov. 23 in Macau. In his 2013 debut, Pacquiao, a worldwide superstar, registered a dominant performance and reasserted his standing in one of boxing’s deepest divisions.
The HBO Sports team of Jim Lampley, 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.
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Fight fans, if you like action, and you like heavy-handed hitters, this is a must-see card. Stevenson and Kovalev are two of the most explosive punchers in the game, and wins by each man likely sets up a confrontation in 2014. So don’t miss out on the holiday action this weekend on HBO!
