HBO BOXING® RETURNS TO WASHINGTON, D.C. WHEN HBO BOXING AFTER DARK®: LUIS ORTIZ VS. TONY THOMPSON AND SADAM ALI VS. JESSIE VARGAS IS SEEN SATURDAY, MARCH 5
HBO Boxing travels to the nation’s capital for an all-action doubleheader when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: LUIS ORTIZ VS. TONY THOMPSON AND SADAM ALI VS. JESSIE VARGAS is seen SATURDAY, MARCH 5 at 10:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the DC Armory in Washington, D.C., exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team 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 (10:15 a.m.) and 8 (12:05 a.m.)
HBO2 playdates: March 6 (3:15 p.m.) and 7 (12:30 a.m.)
The doubleheader will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO and HBO On Demand.
The headlining bout features undefeated Cuban native Luis Ortiz (24–0, 21 KOs) risking his perfect record against veteran Tony Thompson (40–6 27 KOs) in a heavyweight showdown set for 12 rounds. Ortiz, 36, took the division by storm in 2015, compiling three consecutive knockouts over a six-month stretch; most notably, the southpaw handed rising heavyweight prospect Bryant Jennings the first knockout loss of his career. Thompson, 44, will be fighting before a hometown crowd for the first time in more than ten years.
In the evening’s co-main event, a vacant welterweight championship is on the line when Brooklyn’s Sadam Ali (22–0, 13 KOs) takes on Las Vegas’ Jessie Vargas (26–1, 9 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round contest. Ali, 27, has a decorated amateur background, including a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic boxing team, and has fought nearly his entire pro career in the northeast, including a 2014 bout at the DC Armory. Vargas, 26, is looking to rebound from his first professional loss last June against world-class performer Timothy Bradley Jr.
This edition of HBO BOXING AFTER DARK marks HBO Boxing’s third trip to the nation’s capital; most recently, a 2011 card featured a hotly contested light welterweight championship bout between Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson.
Launching 20 years ago this month, HBO BOXING AFTER DARK was the network’s initial platform for a host of exciting talents, including Floyd Mayweather, Arturo Gatti, Marco Antonio Barrera, Fernando Vargas, Terence Crawford, Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.
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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 BOXING AFTER DARK is Rick Bernstein; producer, Thomas Odelfelt; director, Johnathan Evans.
® HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.
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