HBO BOXING AFTER DARK®: NONITO DONAIRE VS. TOSHIAKI NISHIOKA AND
BRANDON RIOS VS. MIKE ALVARADO PRESENTS AN
EXPLOSIVE TWIN BILL SATURDAY, OCT. 13
HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise presents a compelling double dose of all-out ring action when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: NONITO DONAIRE VS. TOSHIAKI NISHIOKA AND BRANDON RIOS VS. MIKE ALVARADO is seen SATURDAY, OCT. 13 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: Oct. 14 (9:30 a.m.) and 15 (11:30 p.m.)
HBO2 playdates: Oct. 14 (4:45 p.m.) and 16 (11:00 p.m.)
Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire (29-1, 18 KOs) of San Leandro, Cal. takes on Toshiaki Nishioka (39-4-3, 24 KOs) of Hyogo, Japan in a 12-round junior featherweight title fight. Undefeated for more than a decade, and among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Donaire is making his fifth appearance on HBO. In Feb. 2011, he scored perhaps his most memorable victory to date, delivering a second-round knockout that ended bantamweight champ Fernando 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 unanimous decision victory over Jeffrey Mathebula at The Home Depot Center in July, and returns to the southern California venue to defend his belt.
The top-ranked boxer from Japan, Nishioka has gone more than eight years since his last defeat, when he fought as a bantamweight. He subsequently moved up in weight to junior featherweight, where he’s currently undefeated and holds a title. Riding a 16-fight winning streak, Nishioka most recently defeated two-division titleholder Rafael Marquez.
Putting two undefeated records on the line, the opening bout is a scheduled ten-round, junior welterweight showdown featuring Brandon Rios (30-0-1, 21 KOs) of Oxnard, Cal. and Mike Alvarado (33-0, 23 KOs) of Denver. After battling with his weight in recent bouts, and scoring a controversial split-decision victory over Richard Abril in April, the fan-friendly, high-energy Rios is making his debut in the 140-pound division. Alvarado dispatched Mauricio Herrera in April in a thrilling boutmany have called a candidate for fight of the year, and will look to use his slight height and reach advantages, as well as his junior welterweight experience, to upset Rios.
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The executive producer of HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is Rick Bernstein; producer, Jon Crystal; director, Mike Sheehan.
® HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.