HBO BOXING AFTER DARK®: NONITO DONAIRE VS. JEFFREY MATHEBULA AND
KELLY PAVLIK VS. WILL ROSINSKY PRESENTS A
WEST COAST SUMMER SHOWDOWN SATURDAY, JULY 7
HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise presents a double dose of all-out ring action when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: NONITO DONAIRE VS. JEFFREY MATHEBULA AND KELLY PAVLIK VS. WILL ROSINSKY is seen SATURDAY, JULY 7 at 10:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT), from The Home Depot Center in Carson, Cal., exclusively on HBO. The team of Bob Papa, 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.
OtherHBO playdates: July 8 (10:00 a.m.) and 9 (12:30 a.m.)
HBO2 playdates: July 8 (4:05 p.m.) and 10 (12:30 a.m.)
In a junior featherweight unification title bout scheduled for 12 rounds, Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire (28-1, 18 KOs) of San Leandro, Cal. takes on veteran scrapper Jeffrey “Marvelous Mongoose” Mathebula (26-3-2, 14 KOs) of Johannesburg, South Africa. Undefeated for more than a decade, and among the top pound-for-pound fighters, Donaire will be making his fourth appearance on HBO. In Feb. 2011, he scored perhaps his most memorable victory to date, delivering a second-round knockout of defending bantamweight champ Fernando Montiel that ended Montiel’s 25-bout winning streak and was named 2011’s knockout of the year. Known for his incredible quickness, Donaire is fresh off a split-decision victory over Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. in February, when he captured a vacant 122-poundtitle.
Mathebula is coming off a tight victory over fellow countryman Takalani Ndlovu in March. Having won his last three bouts, he will be fighting outside his native South Africa for just the fourth time in his career.
The opening bout is a scheduled ten-round super middleweight showdown between Kelly Pavlik (39-2, 34 KOs) from Youngstown, Ohio and up-and-comer Will Rosinsky (16-1, 9 KOs) of Queens. Pavlik, a fan favorite thanks to his overpowering and engaging fighting style, has rebounded nicely since a unanimous decision loss to Sergio Martinez in Nov. 2010, winning his last three bouts. Rosinsky will be fighting for only the second time out of his home state of New York; his first time resulted in the lone defeat of his career, a controversial decision loss to Edwin Rodriguez in Oct. 2011. Rosinsky has put that setback behind him, subsequently delivering back-to-back dominating performances.
The Pavlik-Rosinsky fight replaces the previously announced Brandon Rios- Mauricio Herrera bout, which was cancelled due to a training injury suffered by Rios.
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The executive producer of HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is Rick Bernstein; producer, Jon Crystal; director, Mike Sheehan.