HBO World Championship Boxing
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HBO World Championship Boxing is a TV series that has shown many of boxing's greatest fights and historic events during the last 30 years.
WCB's first event was fought in Kingston, Jamaica in January of 1974, where George Foreman defeated Joe Frazier in 2 rounds to win the world Heavyweight title.
Some other boxing events covered in the series include:
- The Rumble in the Jungle, where Muhammad Ali beat Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire
- Thrilla In Manila, where Ali beat Frazier in the third installment of their trilogy
- Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney, for the heavyweight championship
- The Battle of The Champions, where Aaron Pryor beat Alexis Arguello in the 80's fight of the decade
- Carnival of Champions, where Wilfredo Gómez beat Lupe Pintor, and Thomas Hearns beat Wilfredo Benitez
- Marvin Hagler- Thomas Hearns fight, billed as The War
- Thunder Meets Lightning, where Julio César Chávez beat Meldrick Taylor with 2 seconds to go in the twelfth round;
- The biggest upset in boxing history, where James Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson for the world heavyweight title in Tokyo, Japan
- Fight of the Millennium, where Félix Trinidad beat Oscar de la Hoya to unify the world Welterweight title
World Championship Boxing has also had two spin-off series, Boxing After Dark and KO Nation.
Additionally, a video game carrying the brand name HBO Boxing was produced for the Sony PlayStation.
[edit] Commentators past and present
- Howard Cosell
- Jim Lampley (current)
- Larry Merchant (current)
- Roy Jones, Jr.
- Max Kellerman
- Emanuel Steward (current)
- George Foreman
- Lennox Lewis (current; replacement for Steward)
- Harold Lederman
For pay-per-view fights, Bob Costas and James Brown have been called in on occasion to oversee the telecast while Lampley calls the fight.